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THE 



LIFE AND TIMES 

OF — ,11 

REV. JOHN G; LiNDRM 



ffiP.-GEIFFITH. 



"may 9 1885/ 



PHILADELPHIA : 

H. B. GARNER, Publisher, 

(successor to smith, ENGLISH & CO.) 

710 Arch Street^ 

1885. 







COPYRIGHT, 1885, BY 
H. P. GRIFFITH. 



Grant a Faires, 

420 Library Street, 

philadelphia. 



mTEODUOTIOI^. 



Soon after the death of Eev. John G. Landrum, at the request 
of the Editor of the Baptist CourieVy I prepared a sketch of Mr. 
Landrum's life and labors for that paper. During the prepara- 
tion of that sketch, and while it was coming out in the Corner, 
many friends in whose judgment I had great confidence suggested 
to me that the subject of the sketch was worthy of a more ex- 
tended and enduring memorial. I promised them that such a 
memorial should be prepared, and I have endeavored, through 
difficulties not necessary to be detailed here, to fulfill that promise 
faithfully. The memoir now presented is mainly the rough 
draft of facts collected from various sources and hastily thrown 
together in the intervals of other pressing duties. I am aware 
that as a composition it contains many serious faults. If I could 
rewrite or even revise it to any considerable extent, I should 
remodel many sentences and recast many paragraphs. But all 
that I have had the opportunity of doing in the way of revising 
has been done by interlining and by making such slight changes 
in the proof sheets as the nature of the case imperatively de- 
manded. Nevertheless, it is believed that the main facts recorded 
are reliable, and it is these, after all, that the public want. The 
work has been extended far beyond the limits first assigned it, 
and, even after being placed in the hands of the printer, it has 
been found necessary to discard material for some two hundred 

3 



INTRODUCTION. 



pages, which had been prepared at the expense of much time and 
labor, in order that the price of the book might be brought 
within the limits that had been fixed. 

In this reduction of material, I have tried to discard that which 
I thought would be of least interest to the general reader, and to 
retain that which was most closely connected with the subject in 
hand. Hoping that my labor may not have been altogether in 
vain, I now submit the little book to the consideration of a gen- 
erous public. 

H. P. GRIFFITH. 



Cooper-Limestone Institute, 
i¥arcMM, 1885. 



LIFE 



OP 



Ret. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 



CHAPTER I. 

THE LANDRUM FAMILY. 

rpHE name of Laudrum has become quite a familiar 
-*- one in many parts of our country. Especially is 
the name conspicuous in the annals of the Baptists of 
the South and West. Seldom has the Baptist brother- 
hood come together in large assemblies in the sections 
just named^ during the last quarter of a century, when 
there was not a Landrum there to take a prominent part 
in the proceedings, and to advocate the cause of Jesus 
Christ. Many of the name are to be found in and 
around Richmond, Va., Louisville, Ky., in Edgefield, 
S. C, and in various parts of Georgia. They are gen- 
erally Baptists, and highly respectable wherever found ; 
many of them are wealthy and of high social position. 
So far as known they all believe that they sprung from 
the same stock. Dr. John Landrum, of Edgefield, 
S. C, writes : 

"I have heard my father, Rev. John Landrum, say 

that his father, Samuel Landrum, told him that the 

5 



6 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

original Landrums were two brothers, who came over 
from Scotland and settled in Virginia; one named John 
and the other James. James remained in Virginia^ and 
John^ my great-grandfather, moved to Chatham county, 
N. C, where my father was born May 10th, 1765. 
My grandfather, Samuel Landrum had five sons, John 
(my father), George, Amos, Reuben and Abner. They 
are all dead, and only a part of the descendants of my 
father and Reuben remain in Edgefield. Reuben Lan- 
drum had two distinguished sons, John Morgan and 
G. W. Landrum. 

"John Morgan, after graduating with high honors 
in the South Carolina College, went West, finally to 
Shreveport, La., and became a leading lawyer and 
politician of that State. He was elected Judge and 
afterward a member to the last U. S. Congress before 
the Avar. 

"My grandfather, Samuel Landrum, emigrated to 
South Carolina, about the year 1773, and settled near 
Edgefield C. H. before the Revolutionary War.^^ 

We append also a letter from the Rev. Dr. Sj^lvanus 
Landrum, of New Orleans, written to Dr. J. B. O. 
Landrum on hearing of the death of the subject of this 
memoir. It is mainly a letter of sympathy, but gives 
some interesting particulars in regard to the Landrum 
family. 

"New Orleans, 8th Feb., 1882. 

" Dear Brother : — I had read notices of your 
father's death in several papers before the arrival of 
your letter. I felt much moved when I first heard of 



THE LANDRUM FAMILY. 



his death. It was, however, a blessed aud glorious trans- 
lation for him. Having spent fifty years in the ministry, 
and having baptized five thousand converts, it was time 
to enter the complete, satisfying, and eternal rest. 
Blessed reunion with those who had gone before him! 
He went, too, so quickly — so gloriously ! 

" I wrote him just before leaving Georgia, and I am 
glad that I did so. He never replied, but I presume he 
received my letter. 

'' I look back with much pleasure to the visit I made 
you all, and to my conversations with him. You may 
remember the horse-back ride we made to his church, 
and by way of your house. 

" My information (and his agreed with mine) is, that 
nearly or quite all the Landrums in the South and 
Southwest sprang from four brothers from Wales, who, 
in Colonial times, settled in Virginia. Their descend- 
ants are numerous in the South and West. My grand- 
father's name was Thomas, and he came just after the 
war of 1776 to Georgia, settling in Oglethorpe county. 
In_ that county both my father and myself were born. 
My forefathers were from the family that resided in 
Orange county, Va. 

" The family from which your father descended came 
also from Virginia, but settled in South Carolina. From 
there he removed to Tennessee in 1828. He and I 
traced the same family names ; as, John, Thomas, Samuel, 
etc., and the same characteristics and tendencies. Nearly 
all kept to the Baptist denominationr — many of them 
were deacons and preachers. As preachers, they had 



S LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

sornething of the old Welsh fire and unction. They 
were generally quiet in society and tending to taciturnity. 
Your father mentioned an instance of this tendency. A 
brother rode fifteen miles to see his brother. On arrival 
they made mutual inquiries as to health ; then passed an 
hour in perfect silence, and the visit ended with good- 
byes. My brother had the early history of our family, 
but his death deprived me of it. I regret that I cannot 
be more specific. Do give our love to all the family. 
Dr. Furman is just the man for the memorial sermon. 
God bless you. 

The writer of the above letter, Rev. Sylvanus Lan- 
drum, D. D., formerly of Memphis, Tenn., but now of 
New Orleans, it will be seen, is a grandson of Thomas 
Landrum, who settled in Oglethorpe county, Ga., just 
after the Revolutionary War. Among other descendants 
of Thomas, we may mention Rev. M. M. Landrum, 
M.D., of Tryon City, N. C, and Rev. W. W. Lan- 
drum, of Richmond, Va. 

Reuben Landrum, a brother of Thomas, and grand- 
father of the subject of this memoir, settled near Cross 
Keys, Union county, S. C, where he married a Miss 
Terrel, who was related to the Wilkins family of Union 
and Spartanburg counties. He is represented as having 
been a good citizen, a man of strong though not culti- 
vated mind, and as always standing squarely up for what 
he considered the best interests of his country. He 
dropped dead in old age while feeding shucks to his cattle. 



THE LANDRUM FAMILY, 



He had three sons by his first wife^ Stephen^ James, 
and Benjamin. Stephen^ the eldest^ was a soldier in the 
Revolutionary War; but after three months^ service he 
came home on furlough, and, while sitting in the yard 
engaged in shaving himself, was shot dead by a party of 
tories who had come up to the gate. 

James, the second son, was of a roving and wayward 
disposition. He went to North Carolina and married an 
Indian wife ; and after the Treaty, in ] 827, by which all 
the Indian lands in Georgia wxre ceded to the United 
States, he moved with the tribes to the West. His 
descendants are now mostly in and around Eufala, 
Indian Territory, and are said to be educated, wealthy, 
and highly respectable. 

Benjamin, the third son, was married, and died in 
Middle Tennessee. 

The second wife of Reuben Landrum was Miss Mary 
Ray, sister of Rev. Thomas Ray, of whom we shall have 
something to say hereafter. By this second wife he 
raised five sons and four daughters. Their names were 
Merriman, Thomas, William, Samuel, John, Bessie, 
Esther, Winnie and Martha. These all married, and 
raised respectable families. One of the sons, William, 
served in the '' Creek Indian War^^ under Gen. Andrew 
Jackson. Another, Samuel, was murdered by a high- 
wayman near Athens, Ga. His murderer was arrested, 
and, after making a full confession of his crime, was 
publicly executed. Merriman, Thomas, John, Benjamin, 
and their sisters, Bessie and Esther, moved to Middle 
Tennessee about the year 1806. Tennessee was then a 



10 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

frontier State^ and its fertile soil and fine climate induced 
many South Carolinians to make it the place of their 
abode. The beautiful city of Nashville was laid out 
and founded by a colony from South Carolina. 

We have said that the Landrums were generally 
Baptists ; but about this time a great controversy sprang 
up among the churches of Tennessee and other Western 
States^ and ere long the denomination was divided into 
two sects — one calling themselves Primitive Baptists^ but 
more generally known as Hardshells. They opposed all 
missionary work and denounced a paid ministry^ claiming 
that there is no Scriptural authority for either. The 
other sect were styled Missionary Baptists^ and^ as the 
name would indicate^ held it to be the duty of their 
church not only to contribute of their means to 
the support of the Gospel at home^ but to send 
it to foreign lands^ even to the uttermost parts of the 
earth. This division still exists in many of the Western 
States and the two sects are as far apart as Jew and 
Gentile. 

Of the four Landrum brothers who made Tennessee 
their home, two, John and Merriman, became Missionary 
Baptist preachers. 

John was for many years the pastor of Mount 
Pleasant church in Rutherford county, Tenn. He was 
a man of respectable preaching abilities, and was greatly 
beloved for his pure Christian life and character. He 
died in the pulpit, in full armor, at a good old age. 
Rev. S. C. Reid, pastor of Mount Pleasant church, thus 
describes his death : 



THE LANDBUM FAMILY. 11 

" I was at the Rover Baptist church on Sunday. He 
rose to preachy and had taken his text in PauPs letter to 
Timothy, ' I have fought the good fight ; I have finished 
my course, and hencefiDrth there is a crown of righteous- 
ness laid up for me/ and had been talking only a few 
minutes, when he took his seat, and fell over dead.'^ 

His bones rest in the Mt. Pleasant church-yard, and it 
is inscribed on his tombstone that he was ordained '' a 
Minister of the Gospel of the Missionary Baptist Church 
in 1834."' He was born in 1800 ; consequently, he was 
thirty-four years old when he was ordained to the 
ministry. Perhaps one of the most pleasant acts that 
this good man ever performed was the baptizing of his 
mother, with his own hands, when she was seventy years 
old. 

Merriman was the eldest son of Reuben Landrum, 
and a peculiar interest attaches to him as the father of 
John G. Landrum, the subject of this book. 

Merriman was born about the close of the Revolu- 
tionary war, near Cross Keys, Union county, S. C, on 
the north side of Tyger river, eleven or twelve miles 
west of Union C. H., on land now owned by Coleman 
Lawson. The educational advantages that came within 
his reach were slender indeed ; but such as they were he 
improved to the best of his ability, and possessing strong 
natural powers, he came to be a man far above the 
average in intelligence, moral force, and all the elements 
that constitute a strong and decided character. He 
married in South Carolina in the year 1805, and moved 
the next year^ as has been stated, to Middle Tennessee. 



12 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

Not wishing to purchase land until he had had time to 
look around over the country, he lived for a time in the 
house with Newton Cannon, who was then a bachelor, 
and Surveyor-General of Tennessee. He was afterward 
Governor of the State. Being at this time engaged in 
surveying lands, he was away from home the greater 
part of his time, and Merriman Landrum assumed 
control of his business affairs about home, while Mrs. 
Landrum became the matron of the household. Husband 
and wife, it seems, both performed their duties to the 
entire satisfaction of Gen. Cannon. It is told that the 
coming governor sometimes complained in jest that 
Mrs. Landrum had not patched his clothes as she should 
have done, while the clothes exhibited many conspicuous 
specimens of her handiwork. The general carried his 
gun with him on his surveys, and kept the table supplied 
with fresh venison through the greater part of the 
year. 

The warmest attachment sprang up between the 
bachelor and Landrum, which was severed only by 
death. They visited each other often, and after the 
death of Landrum, Cannon, then Governor of the State, 
paid his widow a special visit of sympathy and condo- 
lence. 

Landrum purchased land and began life as a farmer 
in 1807. He proved to be a first-class farmer and 
made a good living. He was one of the first Baptist 
preachers in Williamson county, Tenn. ; but whether he 
was ordained in South Carolina or Tennessee, we have not 
been able to learn. It is certain that he preached in 



THE LANDRUM FAMILY, 13 

South Carolina^ but it may have been only when on a 
visit to this State. John H. Walker, Esq., wrote of 
him : " He preached at least twice at my father's house 
in Union county, S. C. I heard him both times. He 
was a forcible, old-time preacher, making good use of his 
lungs and arms.'' 

Job Cooper of Tennessee writes : '' He w^as a good 
preacher, and stood as high in the estimation of the 
people as any man I was ever acquainted with." 

His worthy son said of him, long after his death : 
"He was a Baptist preacher of respectable preaching 
powers, and of much personal influence, both as a min- 
ister and as a citizen." He was in politics a Jeffersonian 
Republican, or as known in later times a Democrat, and 
his influence seems to have been courted by many of the 
leading politicians of his State. James K. Polk frequently 
made his house a stopping-place, and other prominent 
men of the day sought and enjoyed his friendship and 
hospitality. 

He, too, lies buried in the Mt. Pleasant church-yard, 
having fallen in the prime and vigor of manhood. The 
following is the inscription on his tomb : 

" Sacred to the memory of Merriman Land rum, born 
12th July, A.D. 1774, and departed this life 28th July, 
1826. He has left an aifectionate wife and nine children, 
with a numerous connection, and many friends to lament 
his last days. As a husband and parent, he was affec- 
tionate ; as a citizen, upright ; as a politician, he was a 
steadfast Republican ; as a minister of the gospel, univer- 
sally esteemed." 



14 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

The widow, Mrs. Delilah Landrum, who survived 
him many years, was the daughter of Ralph Jackson, 
Esq., a highly respected citizen of Union county, S. C. 
He was the great-grandfather of the late William 
Walker, A. 8. H., and John H. Walker, Esq., of 
Spartanburg. One of his sons, Nathaniel, Avas a soldier 
of the Revolution, and carried a scar on his face, caused 
by a gun-shot wound, to his grave. He was also a 
soldier of the Cross, and a Baptist preacher. 

Delilah was the only daughter, and while she received 
only such education in books as the neighborhood 
afforded, she imbibed what was better — early lessons of 
piety, affection and filial duty ; and she grew up to be a 
woman of great dignity and moral power. Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Cooper writes of her : " She was as good a woman 
as ever lived ; well beloved by all that knew her. She 
was an exception — was kind and good to everybody.^^ 

The following incident is told as illustrating her self- 
possession and independence of character : During her 
widowhood, there was a church near her home in Ten- 
nessee, of a different faith and order from that to which 
she belonged. She seldom attended its meetings ; but 
once was prevailed on to accompany her little daughter, 
Mary, to a meeting at night. It was during a term of 
heated revival in the church, and there was great excite- 
ment in the congregation. The preacher soon rose to 
fever heat, and his audience indicated their sympathy by 
shouts and groans, and many other noisy demonstrations. 
When the excitement had reached its climax, the preacher, 
in the tones of a trumpet, demanded that all who wanted 



THE LANDEUM FAMILY, 15 

to go to heaven should rise from their seats and clap 
their hands. The whole congregation, with the single 
exception of Mrs. Landrum, rose and gave the required 
response. The quick eye of the preacher noted the 
defalcation, and he immediately added : '' And all who 
want to go to hell, will please keep their seats/^ Mrs. 
Landrum still calmly kept her seat to the great horror 
of the zealous worshipers, and especially to that of the 
little daughter, Mary. The latter, on reaching home, 
came to her mother with a heavy heart, and, in childish 
simplicity, said : '' Mother, do you want to go to hell f^ 
" No, my child,^^ replied Mrs. Landrum ; ^^ but that 
preacher is not my captain. God knows the hearts of 
all his people, and it is not necessary to make unnatural 
and unbecoming demonstrations in order merely to 
gratify the curiosity of others.^^ 

This noble woman, the mother of John Gill Landrum, 
lived to an advanced age. During the last few years of 
her life, she lived in the house with her daughter, Mrs. 
Ballenger, in Eusk county, Texas, having moved to 
that county with her son-in-law, Mr. R. Alexander, 
about the year 1858. She lies buried in the church- 
yard of New Prospect, Rusk county, Texas. Her end 
was as peaceful as a declining summer day, and the faith 
upon which she had leaned through a long life never 
shook nor faltered. A short while before she died, 
while lying quietly, and apparently noticing nothing, 
her daughter gently approached her and asked if she 
wanted anything. She replied, " I know what you are 
trying to find out. You want to know whether I am 



16 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDBVM. 

afraid to die. Let me tell you, it has been thirty years 
since I was afraid to die. My only care now is for my 
children, and I am now praying my last prayer for 
them. Poor John ! I have for a long time tried to hold 
him up in my prayers. I never forget him.^^ 

Who knows but that the magic power which John 
often Avielded over his congregations in South Carolina 
had its secret source in Texas, in the great depths of the 
dear old mother^s heart ! 

The names of her nine children were Elizabeth, 
John Gill, James, Sarah, William Riley, Harriet, Aza- 
riah Keimbro, Mary and Merriman. 

The account of the Landrum family would be very 
incomplete without a brief notice of each one of these. 

Elizabeth, the eldest, was born in 1808. She married 
Job Cooper, a good man and a highly-respected citizen. 
At the date of this writing she and her husband are still 
living in Hamilton county, Texas, and are both pious 
members of the Presbyterian Church. They are the 
parents of five sons and two daughters, only three of 
whom are alive. Four of their boys lost their lives in 
defence of the South in the late war. One of them, 
Geo. W. Cooper, was a field officer under Gen. Hood, 
and was killed near Atlanta, Ga. Their children that 
are living, and many of their grandchildren, are wealthy, 
educated, and of high social position. 

James, the next son to John Gill, was, unlike his 
elder brother, a stout hardy boy, and was thought to be 
able to push his way through the world without any aid 
from books. He left home at the age of fifteen years, 



THE LANDRUM FAMILY. 17 

married at sixteen, and raised a large family of bright 
boys and girls. He made three trips to California, the 
first in 1851, the second in 1856, and the third in 1859, 
carrying some of his family with him each trip. He 
and his sons went largely into the raising of improved 
long-wool sheep and Cashmere goats. He died in Cali- 
fornia in the year 1875. Sarah now lives in Rutherford 
county, Tenn. She was an unusually bright and intelli- 
gent girl, and received a good education in Salem High 
School. She was married, at the age of twenty-five, to 
Cullen Taylor, an enterprising and well-to-do farmer, 
with whom she lived happily until deprived of him by 
death. She now lives with her son, James M. Taylor, 
who is a popular and highly-respected man in his 
community. 

William, the fifth child, now lives in Alabama. He 
left the home of his mother when only fourteen years 
old, to battle with the world, and went to Georgia, 
where he married, and for a time followed the business 
of a millwright, and afterward that of a railroad 
contractor. By energy and attention to business he 
acquired a competency of this world^s goods, and is now 
a useful and honored citizen. 

Harriet married Ralph J. Alexander, son of Angus 
Alexander, of Union, S. C, and a remarkably good man. 
She and her husband are both dead, and only one of 
their children, a daughter, survives, who lives now in 
Texas. Keimbro raised a large family and lives in 
Gillespie county, Texas. He is a Campbellite preacher 
of respectable powers and good standing. 

2 



18 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

The eighth child of the family is Mrs. Mary Ballen- 
ger^ widow of Thos. Ballenger^ and lives in Eusk county, 
Texas, with her son, John Landrum Ballenger, a young 
man of much promise. She is an affectionate, pious, 
and self-sacrificing woman, noted for her kind ministra- 
tions to the suffering and distressed throughout the 
community in which she lives. 

Merriman Landrum, Jr., the ninth and last child of 
the family, now lives in Grayson county, Texas. He is 
a successful farmer and useful citizen. The care of his 
widowed mother devolving mainly upon him from boy- 
hood had the effect of curtailing the educational advan- 
tages which he might otherwise have enjoyed. Still, he 
so improved the advantages that came within his reach 
as to become a man of more than ordinary intelligence. 
He is clear-headed and self-reliant, and acts upon his 
own judgment. 



CHAPTER II. 

EARLY LIFE OF JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

■pEV. JOHN GILL LANDRUM, named for the 

J-^ great Bible commentator^ was the oldest son of 

Rev. Merriman Landrum^ who, as has been said in the 

preceding chapter, emigrated from Union District (as it 

was then called), S. C, to Williamson, now Rutherford 

county, Tenn., in the year 1806, where John was born 

on the 22d of October, 1810. The precise place of 

his birth is near the present site of Eaglesville, about 

thirty miles south of Nashville. His mother's maiden 

name, as has also been stated, was Delilah Jackson ; and 

this pious, consecrated woman early impressed lessons of 

religious and moral obligation upon her son, which no 

doubt did more toward moulding his character and 

shaping the course of his life than all the other lessons 

of his youth. The parents were not wealthy, but in 

easy pecuniary circumstances. They belonged to that 

class, the great middle class of society, which comprises 

the bone and sinew of the world ; which holds the 

resources for which Agur prayed ; and which stocks the 

world with preachers, statesmen and heroes. The 

father was a man of strong mind and big heart, a natural 

preacher, and a man of considerable personal influence 

both as a minister and as a citizen, 

19 



20 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

The country which he had chosen for his home and 
for the field of his labors was then a frontier country, 
with a sparse population, and full of all the inconveni- 
ences and drawbacks that were usually found by the 
early settlers of the West. Lands had to be cleared, 
houses built, roads opened, and all the machinery of 
newly-organized neighborhoods looked after and put into 
running order, while many of the common necessities of 
civilized life were not to be had except at great cost of 
time and money. But the good man and his wife had 
entered the Western forest with brave hearts, and they 
were not to be discouraged or intimidated by the incon- 
veniences to which they were sometimes subjected or the 
hardships which they sometimes endured. The husband 
worked on the farm during the week and preached to 
such crowds as he could collect on Sunday, while the 
wife did all of her household work, and made the new 
home musical with the buzz of the spinning-wheel and 
the clash of the loom. Later, when her children had 
arrived at proper age for instruction, she would gather 
the little household around her on Sunday, while her 
husband was away, and impress upon them such lessons 
as she could draw from the open Bible and from the 
unfathomable depths of a mother^s love. Her son often 
alluded to these lessons in after life as being the very 
groundwork upon which his character rested ; and to 
the end of his days, he always cherished the profoundest 
love and veneration for his mother. 

John was a frail, delicate child, and seemed destined 
to an early grave. It is stated upon good authority that 



EARLY LIFE. 21 



he did not weigh more than eighty-five pounds until some 
time after he had attained to manhood. His parents 
considering him too weakly for any employment that 
required physical exertion^ thought it wise to give him 
whatever educational advantages it might be in their 
power to bestow^ and at a very early age, perhaps when 
he was not more than four or five years old, he was 
started to school. 

Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper, his oldest sister, writes that 
his father taught the first school to which John ever 
went, and that John was about five years old at the 
time. Keimbro Landrum, his brother, says : ^' He 
entered school at five years of age ; was always at the 
head of his class ; was the pride and hope of father ; 
and was loved by all his schoolmates, except a few who 
were jealous of him on account of his rapid progress.^^ 

Mr. E. A. Seay, an old citizen of Rutherford county, 
Tenn., writes : '' I knew him well, and was intimately 
associated with him in his childhood and early boyhood 
days. He was my best friend and I was his. He was 
gentle and mild in his disposition, and of an active, 
enquiring mind ; so much so, that he received the nick- 
name, 'Trigger^ from some of his schoolmates of a differ- 
ent turn of miud — an appellation which I considered 
complimentary, but which was very distasteful to John^s 
sensitive nature.^^ 

It may be remarked here that through life John G. 
Landrum never had any relish for jokes or nicknames. 
Indeed, anything of the kind was exceedingly distaste- 
ful to him. It is doubtful whether, in the whole course 



22 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

of his ministry^ he ever told an anecdote or uttered a 
word from the pulpit that was calculated to provoke 
even a smile among his hearers. In the social circle he 
was easy and fluent^ sometimes even lively and hilarious^ 
but never indulging in jokes at the expense of others^ or 
giving countenance even to playful allusions which, 
when viewed in a serious light, might be calculated to 
wound the feelings of another. In the pulpit, his words 
were always in keeping with the importance of his 
mission, and his whole demeanor comported well with 
the dignity and solemnity of the occasion. 

His disrelish for jokes must have been a serious incon- 
venience to him in his boyhood days. The school-boy 
who is at all sensitive to the jokes of his play-fellows 
has a hard time of it in youth ; for he is at the mercy of 
every boy that owes him a grudge or envies him his 
standing. He may shine in the class recitation, and the 
dunces may all cower in his shadow; but woe and 
humiliation await him on the play-ground, where the 
veriest blockhead can wield a weapon that cuts to the 
heart, and pierces to the very marrow of his bones. 
Only he who was so unfortunate in his youth as to dis- 
close to his school-fellows something in his constitution 
and temperament which made him a target for the 
shafts of school-boy ridicule can sympathize with the 
little Tennessee school-boy, under the great weight of 
misery and mortification which the merciless boys 
imposed upon him in the appellation of " Trigger." It 
is told by a brother that, twenty years afterward, when 
the little boy had grown to be a great and good man, 



EARLY LIFE, 23 



and was on a visit to his mother^ one of the old school- 
mates came to the door, and, in rather a blustering 
manner, inquired for " Trigger/^ Immediately a voice 
that was then well known replied from within, " Trigger 
declines to see you, sir." 

When John was six or seven years old, a circumstance 
occurred which came well nigh cutting short the hopes 
of parents, and ending his own frail existence. He 
being the oldest son, w^as frequently sent to the mill, 
several miles away, on a sack of grain thrown across a 
horse^s back. On one occasion, when his father was 
away, his mother found it necessary to send him to the 
mill, though the day was bitterly cold, and the ground 
was covered with snow. The mill was crowded with 
customers, and he had to wait for his turn to come. 
Night came on, and he failed to return home. His 
father being absent, his mother set out with a blanket 
in the darkness to meet him. She found him lying at 
the root of a tree by the roadside in a stupefied and 
half-frozen condition. The little fellow had become 
benumbed with cold, and had fallen from his horse, and 
the life-blood was almost congealed when the distressed 
mother grasped him in her arms and pressed him to her 
bosom. The faithful horse stood near by, and the sack 
of meal was still on his back. 

The little boy was carried home in his mother's arms, 
and his life was with difficulty saved. He carried to 
his grave a scar about one ear, caused by that fall from 
his horse. This sketch would not be a faithful one, did 
we not mention the fact, that soon after John Landrum 



24 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

had come to South Carolina^ and had begun to preach 
the gospel^ he became the victim of a cruel and relentless 
persecution ; and^ among other things^ his persecutors 
alleged that he had fled from justice in Tennessee^ and 
that the scar mentioned above was the mark of a rope 
that had once been tied around his neck for crime. 

We find among his old papers a certificate from the 
clerk of the court of Williamson county^ Tenn.^ over 
fifty years old^ and bearing the seal of the court^ to the 
effect that there was there no record of any crime or mis- 
demeanor committed by John G. Landrum. We infer^ 
from a perusal of this old paper^ that Landrum had 
obtained it in order to meet the charges of his calum- 
niators. It is true that he triumphantly vindicated his 
character^ and came forth from the ordeal strengthened 
and better prepared for the life-work that lay before 
him ; yet it is painful to record the fact^ that the spirit 
which stoned Stephen^ and accused the Son of God of 
being in league with devils^ should have attempted to 
glut its fury on a stranger boy, who had consecrated all 
his powers to God, and who was struggling for the 
purest and noblest objects within the range of human 
attainment. 

The childhood and boyhood of Landrum passed with- 
out many incidents different from those that are charac- 
teristic of any boy's life on the farm, in a new country, 
and under the watchful care of anxious and pious 
parents. His health continued delicate, and his body 
developed slowly, though his mind was quick and 
active. Mrs. Ballenger, a sister, in conversation with 



EARLY LIFE, 25 



Mrs. M. A. Wood, of Texas, said : '' My mother always 
regarded him (John) as a remarkable child ; precocious, 
active, enquiring, restless, and eager to learn both from 
books and observation. I have heard my mother say 
that he gave her more trouble than all the rest of her 
children ; not that she could detect in him any disposi- 
tion to wickedness or lawlessness, but she saw that he 
possessed a remarkable mind for one of his years, and 
she felt sure that he would be a great power in the 
world, either for good or for evil. She told him, when 
on a visit to her house in 1849, that he had made just 
the man she had prayed for him to make.^^ 

So eager was he for knowledge that, when quite a 
small boy, he manifested an interest in topics that were 
considered altogether too grave for a child ; and it is 
related upon good authority, that often when his father 
and friends were engaged in conversation around the 
home fireside, John would secrete himself behind the 
doors or in some place where he could for a time be free 
from the little calls to duty about the house, and would 
listen intently to the conversation that was going on. 
He was always fond of popular assemblies. When only 
seven or eight years old, his father sent him to Nashville, 
on horseback, to procure some land papers. His mother 
also furnished him some money with which to purchase 
several little articles, such as a few pounds of sugar, 
a few ounces of dyestuffs, etc. His return was delayed 
much longer than was expected, and the parents became 
uneasy and full of anxiety. To add to their uneasiness, 
a heavy rain fell just before night, and their fears were 



26 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

increasing every moment^ when the little fellow appeared, 
drenched with rain, and having in his satchel a well- 
saturated mixture of sugar, soda, dyestuifs, and so on. 
The father was so enraged that he applied the switch 
pretty freely, without asking many questions. After the 
castigation was over, however, little John, in answer to 
questions as to the cause of his delay, replied, between 
sobs, that a certain bill in the legislature had passed the 
lower house, and he had waited to see if it would 
pass the upper house. Keimbro Landrum says that his 
father embraced the little fellow after hearing this state- 
ment. 

Mrs. Taylor relates another circumstance somewhat 
similar to the above. She says : 

'' When he was ten or twelve years old, father sent 
him to Murfreesboro on some business. There was no 
bridge over Stone river, and there had been a heavy 
rain. It was in the spring of the year, and the county 
court was holding its spring session. John stayed until 
very late and father became very much agitated. He 
had a good supply of switches provided and held them 
in readiness for his boy^s appearance. By and by John 
came and seeing the preparations that had been made to 
receive him, he burst into tears, and stated that he had 
stayed to hear the lawyers speak. My father was so 
affected that he threw down the switches and inquired 
concerning the proceedings of court, of which John gave 
an intelligent account.^^ 

He seems to have possessed business qualifications 
when quite young, and as he wa§ considered too weakly 



EARLY LIFE, 27 



to work on the farm, these qualifications were often put 
to the test. Keimbi^o Landrum writes : " When he was 
but eight years old, he attended to nearly all of father's 
business. Father placed great confidence in him, and 
would frequently send him from ten to fifty miles on 
business of importance.'^ 

Mrs. Wood writes : " He was frequently sent on 
errands, and transacted a great deal of business for his 
father that would have done credit to one far his superior 
in years.'^ By these trips to Nashville and other places 
an opportunity was afforded him of catching an occa- 
sional glimpse of some of the prominent men of the day. 
On one occasion, while in Nashville, he saw Andrew 
Jackson and David Crockett ; at another time, he saw 
Jackson and LaFayette riding in the street together, 
and witnessed the public reception that was given to the 
latter during his last visit to this country. 

Such sights and associations were well calculated to 
excite in a boy of ardent temperament the liveliest 
aspirations for political distinction. Some time after- 
ward, too, he formed the acquaintance of James K. 
Polk, then a young lawyer in Nashville, and the 
acquaintance seems to have ripened into something like 
intimacy ; for we hear of Polk's spending a night with 
him at his mother's house, and of their occupying the 
same bed together. He seems at this time to have 
actually cherished an ambition to become a politician ; 
and, no doubt, his intercourse with the ambitious young 
lawyer but added fuel to the flame. One would like to 
stand awhile just outside the room door of that old farm- 



28 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

house^ fifty-eight years ago^ and hear the young lawyer 
and the farmer boy talk about their plans and hopes for 
future life. The one^ no doubt^ already had his heart 
set on popular honors^ and his ear entranced with the 
" whistling of a name.'^ The other was feeling in his 
heart the first bounding impulses of youthful ambition — 
the first purposeless strugglings of a spirit half-conscious 
of inherent greatness — and he was meditating^ revolving, 
speculating, dreaming, and ever and anon, perhaps, 
gazing with something like superstitious awe out upon 
the wide gulf that lay between him and ambition^ s 
glittering goal. The paths of the two bed-fellows soon 
widely diverged : One passed through legislatures and 
senates up to the chief magistracy of a great republic ; 
the other, through humiliation and self-denial, to his 
stand on the watchtower of Zion, from which, for fifty- 
three years, he proclaimed the glad tidings of salvation 
to a dying world. 

The schools of the immediate neighborhood were 
inadequate to the demands of his now rapidly unfolding 
mind ; and, if he continued his studies, it was necessary 
to seek some school of higher grade. He accordingly 
entered the school of Travis Nash, who taught prin- 
cipally a grammar school. This school was located 
about six miles from his father's, and during a part of 
the term John rode from home on horseback, and 
during the other part boarded with Azariah Keimbro, 
a friend of his father. He attended this school probably 
two years, and at the closing examination carried off the 
first honors of his class. Among his school-fellows was 



EARLY LIFE, 29 



M. p. Gentry, who afterward was a member of the 
U. S. Congress, and "vvas the Whig candidate for Gov- 
ernor of Tennessee against Andrew Johnson in 1854. 
Dr. Haiden Scales and Dr. Webb, both distinguished 
men of Tennessee, were also students in Travis' gram- 
mar-school. After a two years' course in this school, 
at the invitation of Gov. Cannon, John went to his 
house to board, and attended a private school established 
by the governor and a few friends, taught by a gentle- 
man named Montgomery. This teacher was a professor 
of mathematics ; or, as he was then called, a graduate 
in numbers, John had not been long in this school 
when, by the sad and unexpected death of his father, he 
was called home, and his school-days in Tennessee 
seemed to be brought to a sudden close. 

It now devolved upon him to assume the care of his 
mother and younger brothers and sisters ; and he went 
to the task with that promptitude and alacrity with 
which he had learned to discharge every duty, and by 
his good management and prompt business habits, soon 
showed that he was fully equal to the demands of the 
new and trying position in which he found himself so 
unexpectedly placed. He remained with his mother 
upward of fifteen months, superintending the affairs of 
the farm and the business of his father's estate. With 
the exception of three months in the Latin school of 
Randolph Alexander, he had no further opportunity of 
attending school in his native State. He was still too 
slender and delicate of frame to work on the farm, and 
his younger brothers having far out-grown him, the care 



30 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

of the farm was turned over to them^ and it was decided 
that John should pay a visit to relatives residing in 
South Carolina. 

As a great deal has been said about this visit to South 
Carolina^ and as it seems to have been an important link 
in a chain of special providences^ we beg the indulgence 
of the reader while we take a glance at the surroundings 
and endeavor to ferret out the motives that induced him 
to make it. 

It will be remembered that he afterward found it 
necessary to vindicate himself against the charge of 
having left Tennessee to escape the penalty of misde- 
meanor ; but the far more general impression in South 
Carolina seems to have been that he had fled from a call 
to preach the gospel^ and^ like Jonah^ was attempting to 
hide from the voice of the Almighty — was fleeing not 
from man but from God. This impression seems to 
have grounded itself simultaneously with his appearance 
there among his friends and relatives^ and so fixed 
and deep-rooted did it become that it has not yet been 
entirely obliterated. 

In a letter, written by himself several years ago, to 
Rev. Dr. Boykin, he says : '' I was brought to feel 
deeply my lost condition as a sinner at the time of my 
father's sudden and unexpected death, and in a few 
months I was, I trust, enabled to believe with all my 
heart on the Lord Jesus Christ, and was, on a public 
profession of that faith, baptized by Elder William 
Moody, and united with the Baptist Church at Mount 
Pleasant, of which my father was the pastor at the time 



EARLY LIFE. 31 



of his death. I had, soon after my conversion, impres- 
sions to preach the gospel, but, if I did not resist them, 
I certainly strove to postpone any attempt to speak for 
God publicly, or to communicate my feelings even to my 
most intimate or confidental friends/^ 

The writer had a conversation, about two years ago, 
with a gentleman living in the Padgett^s Creek commu- 
nity, in Union county, S. C, who said : " I remember 
distinctly the first time I ever saw John Landrum. It 
was at a militia muster, and there was a crowd of boys 
around him whom he was entertaining. He was a 
stranger to me, and, upon inquiry, I was told it was 
young Landrum from Tennessee. I was unfavorably 
impressed with his appearance and demeanor, and was 
astonished to hear soon afterward that he was trying to 
get rid of impressions to preach, and that it was for that 
purpose mainly that he had left Tennessee.^^ 

Whether what this gentleman heard was true or not, 
is the question. The visit was always spoken of by 
Landrum himself simply as a visit to his relatives. In a 
letter already quoted from, we find in his own hand this 
sentence : " I decided, after great conflict of mind and 
prayerful anxiety, to follow the leadings of my long 
pent-up impressions to preach the gospel of our blessed 
Saviour to lost sinners.'^ Though, in this statement, he 
speaks of the conflict of mind as being great, there is 
nothing in it that would imply that it was so great as to 
drive him away from his home in Tennessee ; neither 
has he left on record anything that would lead us to such 
a conclusion. Still there are some things connected with 



32 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

that visit to South Carolina which we would like to have 
more fully explained. It is certainly not to be wondered 
at that a boy seventeen years old should^ under ordinary 
circumstances^ pay a visit to relatives in another State ; 
but that a boy devoted to his mother and to a family 
dependent^ in a great measure^ upon him for a support, 
should undertake a journey of five hundred miles on 
horseback, through a wild, broken and sparsely-settled 
country, solely for the sake of visiting relatives that he 
had never seen but once, and that when he was too young 
to form much of an attachment to them, seems just a 
little improbable. We naturally look for some stronger 
motive than a desire to see distant relatives, whose faces 
must have almost faded from his memory, to prompt 
such a boy to perform such a journey under such circum- 
stances. And when the report spreads abroad immedi- 
ately on his arrival in South Carolina, that he is, like 
Jonah, running from a call to preach, we are more than 
half inclined to give it credence, because we can see no 
other reason for his appearance in South Carolina which 
exactly satisfies us. But if it was true that he was 
trying to play the role of Jonah, he found, like his 
prototype, that God could follow him, and could speak to 
him in tones just as imperative in South Carolina as in 
Tennessee; yea, ^^ though he took the wings of the 
morning and flew to the uttermost parts of the earth, 
there was no escape from his presence.^^ 

On the other hand, there are plenty of considerations 
that would lead us to conclude against the probabilities 
of a flight from duty, considerations which probably had 



EARLY LIFE. 33 



great weight with him and still greater weight with his 
mother. His health was still delicate ; his constitution 
frail ; he had been closely confined to business for more 
than two years ; his brothers had become large enough 
to manage the farm and to look after the interests of the 
family, and it may have been thought nothing more than 
was due him, that he should be allowed a season of 
respite for recreation and recuperation ; and where could 
such a season be better enjoyed or better improved than 
among the near relatives and old friends of his father 
and mother in South Carolina ? 

It seems that a Mr. Jonathan Norman, a citizen of 
Tennessee, was going to South Carolina with a drove of 
horses, in 1828, and it was decided that young Landrum 
should accompany him and spend a year with his rela- 
tives, many of whom, including his grandmother, were 
still living in Union county, S. C. Mrs. Taylor, from 
whom we have before quoted, says, in reference to his 
departure, " His mother, who was in only moderate cir- 
cumstances, had no money by her with which to furnish 
him for his journey. Just before his departure, she 
slipped a dime into his hands, saying that it was all she 
had. Mr. Norman, who was present, assured her that 
her son should not lack for money, and that he would 
bear all of his expenses. He added, furthermore, a com- 
pliment upon her son^s smartness and promised to take 
good care of him. The fond mother then, with prayers 
and tears, embraced her son and bade him adieu.'^ 

As his mother may be mentioned no^ more in the 
progress of this sketch, we will state here that she died 

8 



34 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

only a few years ago at the advanced age of ninety. 
She lived to see the little seeds she had sown in faith, and 
consecrated with prayer and tears, spring np and bear 
fruit more than a hundred fold. Her grateful son 
visited her occasionally as time and opportunity would 
permit, and never forgot, as long as she lived, to send 
her every year some pledge of filial affection, some token 
of grateful remembrance. It was not long that she had 
had the control of her boy. But in the short period of 
a few fleeting years, like the mother of Moses, she pre- 
pared him to be a leader in Israel. She laid the founda- 
tion of a character that could not be shaken by all the 
tempests of life ; no, nor by all the powers of the prince 
of darkness. Think of her, ye mothers, whose patience 
is Avorn, whose spirits are weary, whose lives are a daily 
scene of toil, by reason of the little crying ones that 
cling to your skirts ! Think of her, ye fathers, that 
dote on your boys, and exert yourselves to give them all 
the advantages of liberal culture, while your girls are 
left to grow up like the wild flowers of the fields and 
forests. And ye, lawmakers, that annually \ ote away 
thousands of the people's money to sustain and build up 
male schools and colleges, without ever saying one word 
about the education of our daughters — think what one 
noble, cultivated, consecrated woman is capable of doing 
for the country, for humanity, for God ! 



CHAPTER III. 

EARLY LIFE IN SOUTH CAROLINA. GOING TO SCHOOL, 
AND TEACHING. LETTERS, REMINISCENCES, ETC. 

"DEFORE young Landrum had been in Union many 
J-^ weeks, it was decided that he should remain 
a year, and attend the school of John Bostick, an 
educated Englishman, who was teaching in the neigh- 
borhood. 

The pupil afterward pronounced this man '' a capital 
English teacher;^' and added, ^^ With him I completed 
what was then considered a good English education.^^ 

He lived during this year, which was 1829, in the 
house of Rev. Thomas Ray, who was a pious, conse- 
crated Baptist preacher, and who took him to his bosom 
with more than paternal affection. The two were 
related by the ties of blood, but exactly in what degree 
we have not been able to discover. It has often been 
said that Ray was Landrum^s uncle, and we know that 
the latter always called him " Uncle Ray.^^ But uncle 
seems to have been a sort of voluntary title that attached 
itself to Ray, and Landrum may have naturally adopted 
the popular mode of addressing him, and of speaking of 
him. Even to this late day there is hardly any one in 
Spartanburg or Union county that ever speaks of the 

old preacher except as of " Uncle Tommy Ray.'^ It will 

35 



36 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

be seen from letters hereafter appended that the relation- 
ship was not that of uncle and nephew. 

Thomas Ray was then an old man, and had been a 
preacher from his youth. He was a man of moderate 
preaching ability, but of fervent piety and unspotted 
character. His heart was full to overflowing with love 
to God and man; and being possessed of charming 
manners and a most genial nature, he literally dispensed 
joy and sunshine wherever he went. He was very fond 
of jokes and anecdotes ; and, while he studiously avoided 
them in the pulpit, he would enliven the social circle for 
hours at a time with the rich fund of humorous stories 
which he always had on hand. Especially was he 
fond of telling anecdotes about himself, generally of 
his blunders and failures as a preacher. Whatever 
circumstance or adventure that showed himself to a 
disadvantage, or made him appear ridiculous, he would 
tell with great zest and enjoy with huge delight. Rev. 
M. C. Barnett, in his history of Broad River Association, 
tells the following anecdote, which he says Ray used to 
tell on himself: 

"•At some place where he was a stranger, he was 
invited to preach, and he said he made a very bungling 
discourse. However, when he came out of the stand, 
some brother came to him and insisted that he should 
visit them again. ^ Ah ! ' said Ray, ^ you needn't insist 
on that, for I intend to come back. I can beat that 
preach, and I intend to do it,' 

" ' Oh ! ' said the brother, ' you have the best voice that I 
ever heard ; I think you might have been heard a half mile.' 



LETTERS, REMINISCENCES, ETC. 37 

'^ ' Yes/ said Ray, ' I used to think it was the thundei- 
that killed the trees; but I have since learned that it is 
the lightning.'^ '' 

The same writer adds : " I have thought that he was 
the most delightful companion that I ever saw/^ 

He was a tall, portly, dignified-looking man, with 
something of a kingly air ; and he inspired one at first 
sight with feelings of respect and veneration. If he was 
not an able man in the pulpit, he had the good sense to 
know it, and to know, moreover, wherein his great 
power lay. His blameless life, his love for Christ, his 
social influence, his fire-side talks, were all so many 
sources of power, upon which he drew largely and con- 
stantly. 

He was a sound business man, and accumulated con- 
siderable property, and cared very little whether his 
churches paid him for preaching or not. He traveled 
altogether on horseback, and never mounted a horse that 
was not worthy of a knight. When he had supplied 
the Bethel church in Spartanburg county, twenty miles 
from home, for a year, and when at the end of the year 
he had received from the church the sum of twelve 
dollars for his year's work, he laughed, and said, ^^ Well, 
brethren, that will buy me a new saddle/^ and he ac- 
cepted the unanimous call to supply them the next year. 

He lived to be eighty-three years old, and died 
suddenly. He was well and hearty at supper, and 
before midnight a corpse. 

We have made this seeming digression, because we 
think he was the man, more than all others, that 



38 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

encouraged and strengthened John G. Landrum, at a 
time when he needed all the aid that human sympathy 
and Christian affection could bestow. God made Lan- 
drum a preacher through the instrumentality of his 
mother and Thomas Ray. We think^ too, that, as we 
proceed with this memoir, we shall find that the latter 
impressed upon him some principles and sentiments that 
clung to him through life — gave some of the finishing 
strokes to a character that stood the tests of fifty-three 
years, and elicited nothing but the warmest love and 
admiration. 

While attending the school of John Bostick in the 
year 1829, Landrum was licensed to preach by the 
Baptist church at Padgett's creek. There are various 
persons still living who heard, or who think they heard, 
his first effort ; but the accounts they give of the text 
and the attendant circumstances would lead one to believe 
that they heard him at different times during the first 
year of his ministry. It is certain that his first sermon 
was preached at Padgett's creek, and it is equally certain 
that it was far beyond what any one expected. Mrs. 
Wood says : '' It was regular preaching day at Padgett's 
creek. Old Mr. Ray had closed the services when 
young Landrum said to him, ' I want to preach.' Ray, 
in his usually blunt way, said to him, ^Get up and 
preach, then.' He did rise then and preach from the 
text, ^ Awake thou that sleepest.' Many who were 
in the act of starting home hitched their horses and 
returned to the house to hear him, and this first attempt 
did awake many." It is further related, in connection 



LETTERS, REMINISCENCES, ETC. 39 

with this occasion^ that of one family in the neighbor- 
hood^ one little boy had gone to church and another 
had gone a fishing. Meeting at home in the afternoon, 
the angler noticed a great change in the appearance and 
demeanor of his church-going brother, and insisted on 
knowing the cause. After some hesitation the brother 
replied : " I have heard little John Landrum preach 
to-dayJ^ 

Eev. John L. Norman, in a conversation with the 
writer a year or tAvo ago, said that he was present when 
Landrum preached his first sermon, and that his text 
was Rom. vi. 23 : " For the wages of sin is death ; but 
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our 
Lord.^^ He spoke of the sermon as being one of great 
power, and as making a profound impression on the 
congregation. 

Mr. Wesley HoUis, a highly-respected citizen of 
Union, also stated to the writer a year or two ago that 
he well remembered Landrum's first sermon, though he 
had forgotten the text. He spoke of it as being power- 
ful and unexpected, almost like a clap of thunder from 
a cloudless sky ; and as making the profoundest impres- 
sion on the church and congregation. 

No doubt, then, all remember correctly, and the dis- 
crepancy in particulars may be accounted for on the 
ground that they each heard him for the first time 
during that year at Padgett^s creek. Mrs. Wood may 
speak of his first exhortation, as the text she quotes 
would seem to imply; Mr. Norman may refer to his 
first regular sermon after having been licensed ; and Mr. 



40 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

Hollis may have heard either or both. Be this as it 
may, there must have been something unusually power- 
ful in the sermon or exhortation which made impres- 
sions that have been tenaciously and vividly retained in 
human memory through all the changes of fifty-five 
years. 

As the Baptists of the country would likely feel an 
interest in the Padgett's creek church as being the 
church that sent Landrum forth, and the one to which 
Ray gave the best years of his life, and as they are 
anxious to know all that can be known in regard to 
Landrum's connection with that church and community, 
we append, almost entire, the following letter addressed 
to Dr. J. B. O. Landrum, son of the subject of this 

memoir : 

^^ Cross Keys, Union Co., S. C, 

''March 30, 1882. 

"Db., J. B. O. Landrum, 

" Dear Sir : — You doubtless think that I am 
not going to make any reply to your letter of 25th ult. 

" My delay has not been caused by carelessness, but I 
have been waiting to get the information which you ask. 
I have not yet been able to obtain all the information I 
would wish, but I have done the best I could. The most 
reliable information received has been obtained from 
Mr. Isaac P. Murphy, who is the oldest man of our 
community, and who has lived in this neighborhood all 
his life. He is now eighty-four years old, and is noted 
for having the best memory of any man in this part of 
the country. He is a member of the Baptist Church at 



LETTERS, REMINISCENCES, ETC 41 

Lower Fair Forrest. I consulted Mr. Murphy at some 
lengthy and the information he gave me was in substance 
as follows : 

'' He was intimately acquainted with your father during 
his three years^ sojourn in Union^ which were about the 
years you mention. Rev. Merriman Landrum^s father 
lived on the north side of Tyger river, about eleven or 
twelve miles from Union C. H., on land now belonging 
to Coleman Lawson, where, he thinks, your grandfather 
was born. He thinks he moved to Tennessee about the 
year 1806. He was called ^ Merry ^ Landrum, and he 
had often heard him preach at Padgett^s creek. He 
was fond of the theme of the final perseverance of the 
saints and their sure salvation, and he quoted, as proof, 
' Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be 
taken away from her,^ and passages of kindred meaning. 
He was a sound doctrinal preacher. 

'^ The next fall, after having moved to Tennessee, he 
came back alone on a visit. 

"When J. G. Landrum first began to exercise in 
public, it is said that the first that was known of him, he 
was on the floor at Padgett^s creek exhorting, and he 
was considered an able minister from the very start. 
Mr. Murphy stated that he went to Lower Fair Forrest 
one time, expecting to hear a sermon from Rev. Thos. 
Ray, who was the pastor, but for some cause he was not 
there, and young Landrum was called upon to preach. 
He remembers that he said, when he arose, that he was 
laboring under great and weighty embarrassments. 



42 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

Mr. Murphy further remembers that your father told 

him^ about this tune^ that he had strong impressions to 

preach before he left Tennessee^ but he had not thought 

that he could effect much good there among his old 

acquaintances and associates. ^ * * * 

^' I have not had access to the records of Padgett's 

creek churchy but will give you a few facts obtained 

from Mr. Murphy. He does not know when the church 

was first organized. When he first knew it, it stood 

about one mile lower down on the Columbia road. It 

was then a log house, and had taken its name from a 

creek that heads near the old location. Rev. Thomas 

Greer, who had been ordained by the church, was pastor, 

and continued to be so through a period of forty years. 

The church was moved to its present site in 1811. 

Some rule was adopted in the church which Mr. Greer 

did not approve, and he resigned the charge. Eev. 

Thos. Ray was elected to succeed him, and he was the 

pastor until his death. The new house was built in 

1845. * * >K * Mr. Murphy says that 

your father was not a nephew of Thomas Ray. Ray 

was a cousin to your father's paternal grandmother, and 

your father was what he terms second or third cousin to 

Thos. Ray. 

"Very truly yours, 

"David N. Wilburn." 

The effort to preach was repeated again and again 
during the year that Landrum attended John Bostick's 
school, and at other places than Padgett's creek. He 



LETTERS, REMINISCENCES, ETC. 43 

made frequent visits with Ray to other churches more or 
less distant, and he began to be known and talked about 
over a considerable scope of country. During all this 
time he was applying himself assiduously to his studies 
in school, and men predicted that his frail bodily powers 
would soon sink under severe mental application coupled 
with the extraordinary zeal he w^as accustomed to display 
in the pulpit. But how little do men know ! The 
Spirit was rooting itself in congenial soil, and, ere long, 
the hues of health began to tinge the pallid cheeks, the 
narrow chest began to expand, and men wondered again, 
when they saw the frail, slender boy, in spite of his course 
of life and their predictions, developing rapidly into a 
man of portly frame and robust health. 

Prior to his first attempt to preach, and, indeed, from 
the time of his conversion, he was a close and attentive 
reader of the Scriptures. Upon one occasion, at his 
grandmother's, a number of guests were assembled, 
among whom were Rev. Thomas Ray and Rev. Thomas 
Greer. These two old ministers were discussing a certain 
passage of Scripture, when young Landrum, who had all 
the while been an attentive listener, suddenly interrupted 
them with the charge that the passage in question had 
been incorrectly quoted. There was the tone of confi- 
dence about his assertion which accurate knowledge is 
apt, unconsciously, to impart, and which Ray construed 
as rudeness and disrespect, and on the impulse of the 
moment he administered a sharp rebuke to the young 
student. Landrum felt the rebuke very keenly and 
immediately left the room. On examination it was 



44 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

found that Landrum was right and the old preachers 
were wrong. Then Ray^ in the goodness of his heart, 
went out to make reparation, but so deeply was Lan- 
drum^s feelings wounded that he refused for the time to 
accept an apology, and kept away from the company for 
the rest of the day. 

Ray, with all the kindness and affection that belonged 
to his genial, high-toned nature, had a very high appre- 
ciation of the dignity belonging to age and experience, 
and he was ever ready to demand the respect to which he 
thought age and experience were entitled. 

He was once attempting to enforce some point in 
church conference, when he was stoutly opposed by a 
young preacher, who was present. The controversy 
became warm and excited, and the young man at length, 
in sarcastic arrogance, called out : '' Brother Ray, did 
you ever read the Scriptures ?^^ This kindled a flame in 
the old man's bosom which must have vent, and before 
which green things must wither. Raising himself to his 
full height, and fixing his piercing eyes upon the young 
upstart, while the index finger of his right hand beat 
time to his words, he replied : '' Yes, sir, I read them 
over and over before you were born ; and I read them 
over and over again before you were born again, if you 
ever were born again.^^ 

Uncle Ray, as he was called, on his superb horse, 
continued his monthly visits to the Bethel church for a 
good many years. 

Whether the brethren there ever got to thinking it 
their duty to do more than to keep him in saddles or 



LETTERS, REMINISCENCES, ETC 45 

not, we are not able to tell. We know, however, that 
the descendants of those old brethren of Bethel are as 
noble and liberal a band of Christians as the country 
affords, and we mean no disrespect to the memory of their 
ancestors and our own when we make such allusions to 
the history of the past. The old pastor had told his 
flock at Bethel that he was going to bring up with him 
from Union a little boy preacher, who would astonish 
them, and curiosity and expectation were running high 
when Landrum, in company with the pastor, made his 
first visit to that church. 

The usual form of the pulpit then was that of a 
square, deep box mounted on an elevated rostrum, and 
there is a lingering tradition about Woodruff that Philip 
Pilgram, an old member of the Bethel church, upon one 
occasion had to procure a block of wood for Landrum 
to stand on, so that he might be able to look his congre- 
gation in the face. A letter in our possession locates the 
circumstance at the Cedar Shoal church, near Hobbys- 
ville, and attributes the act of procuring the block to 
other parties. We remember to have once mentioned 
this story to the subject of this sketch, and to have asked 
him if there was any foundation for it. He replied, " I 
think not ; I have no recollection of any such a thing's 
having been done, though it might have been done with- 
out my knowledge and without attracting my attention. 
I know that I was exceedingly thin and slender, but I 
think I was about as tall as I am now, and up to the 
ordinary standard of height.^^ 

There are those living who well remember the first 



46 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G, LANDEUM, 

visit to Bethel and the sermon, and they give unanimous 
testimony to the fact that expectation, high as it was, 
was more than fully met. It was on the return home 
from this church, upon one occasion, that a little incident 
occurred which showed how deep and genuine was the 
interest felt by the old father in his young prot6g6. As 
they jogged along the level sandy road leading from 
Woodruff to Cross Anchor, the old man, usually so 
cheerful and jovial, was stern and silent. In vain did 
young Landrum attempt to draw him out by remarks 
upon the country through which they were passing ; the 
weather, the residences on the road -side, and any number 
of common-place topics. If answers came at all, they 
came in monosyllables, and in such a tone as to quell the 
spirit of conversation. The result was that ere long they 
both lapsed into profound and sullen silence, and rode some 
distance side by side without cither's uttering a word. At 
last Landrum exclaimed : ^^ Uncle Ray, I can't stand this 
any longer ; what have I done to-day that has displeased 
you.'' The old man then affectionately and tenderly re- 
minded him of some little things, either in his sermon or 
in his conversations with the brethren, which he regarded 
as improprieties in one so young :. then the cloud passed 
away from his brow, and the rest of the journey home- 
ward was beguiled with lively and pleasant conversation. 
There are many vivid and pleasant memories linger- 
ing among the old, of these early days of John Landrum. 
While the changes and trials of fifty years have obliter- 
ated many of the impressions made on mind and heart, 
these memories still live as the sweet, slumbering echoes 



LETTERS, REMINISCENCES, ETC. 47 

of the long^ long ago^ and when aroused by inquiry or 
excited by reference to those days they will cause the 
wrinkled face to beam with fondness and the age- 
dimmed eye to glow again with the holy light of youth. 
Most of the actors of those days have long ago passed 
away^ but here and there one still lingers^ like some 
grand old tower tottering to its fall. Let us embalm 
their words and stereotype their recollections ere they, 
too, shall be wafted beyond the boundaries of time. 

We insert here a letter from Mrs. Mary Brockman 
Walker, whose father, at the time of which we are 
writing, lived between Woodruff and Hobbysville, near 
the road leading to Cross Anchor. Her brother. Major 
Hosea J. Dean, was afterward one of the strongest 
pillars of the Spartanburg church, was the life-long 
friend of Landrum, was honored with eminent positions 
by his fellow citizens, and w^as a man of whom his 
county and State were justly proud. He died in the 
prime and vigor of manhood, and in the midst of his 
usefulness, and his bones now rest in the cemetery at 
Spartanburg, in the midst of the people he had loved and 
served so well, while loving hands still decorate his tomb, 
and loving eyes still fondly w^atch his sleeping kust : 

"Waco, Texas, May 7, 1882. 

"Dr. J. B. Landrum, 

" Dear Sir : — Your letter of March 30th received. 
In the death of your father, Spartanburg has lost one of 
her best men ; the church, a faithful minister, and his 
immediate neighborhood, a true friend. 



48 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDEUM. 



« 



'' Of the loss to his family it is almost presumption to 
speak. I had received from my sister, Mrs. Mary 
Owen Dean, one of our Spartanburg papers containing 
notices of this great bereavement. 

^^The first sermon Brother Landrum preached in 
Spartanburg county was in 1829, at Cedar Shoal church, 
one mile from Hobbysville, then called Hobby^s store. 
At the time Miles Rainwaters was pastor of the church. 
Landrum was too small to be seen in the tall pulpits 
then in use, and Andy, a colored servant of Gabriel 
Styles, my uncle by marriage, was sent to Hobby^s store, 
and soon returned to the waiting congregation with a dry- 
good^s box, on which the boy preacher stood in the pulpit. 

^^Two weeks afterward, he came with Rev. Thos. 
Ray, pastor of the Bethel church, and preached on 
Saturday. In the afternoon, he and Mr. Ray went to 
my father's (John Dean's) and spent the night. He 
preached again on Sunday. He did, indeed, look like a 
little boy. He was very slender. * * * ]\/[y 
mother, Mary Farrow Dean, did make him a present 
of a suit of blue jeans, and the next time he preached 
at Bethel he had it on. He seemed to impress every 
one, even in those early days, as a preacher on whom 
the special blessings of God rested, and all were aston- 
ished at his eloquence and power. In 1830, when my 
mother died. Brother Landrum preached her funeral, 
and twenty-three years afterward, in 1853, he preached 
my father's funeral. 

" So many years have elapsed since the early days of your 
father's ministry, and my mind has been so crowded with 



LETTERS, REMINISCENCES, ETC 49 

the cares and anxieties of each succeeding year, that I find 
now I cannot recall incidents or items of interest and value. 
'' I may add that I believe I am the only one living 
that was with Brother Landrum when he organized the 
church at Spartanburg, and I became one of its members. 
It may be, however, that Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Archer, 
parents of Mr. John Archer, are living yet. They 
moved to Georgia. 

" Yours very truly, 

" Mary Beockman Walker/^ 

The letter given above fully corroborates a statement 
made by Mr. David Patton, an old gentleman now 
living near Gowensville. Mr. Patton says he was at 
Bethel when Landrum preached his first sermon there, 
and that he and his Uncle Ray went from the church to 
the house of ^Squire John Dean, and that Mrs. Dean 
presented Landrum a jeans suit. The above-mentioned 
suit was probably the first contribution that was ever 
made to him as a preacher. 

With the close of the year 1829 and John Bostick^s 
school, Landrum^s school-days were at an end. The 
year had been to him one of severe application. He had 
not only applied himself faithfully and diligently to his 
text-books, but he had read the Scriptures extensively, 
and had eagerly devoured the contents of whatever other 
good books had fallen in his way, beside devoting much 
time to the preparation of sermons. 

He was now a correct speller, a good arithmetician 
and grammarian, which was the extent of what was 

4 



50 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

considered " a good English education/^ It was a good 
foundation^ which he widened and deepened in after 
years, and upon which he reared the structure of life-long 
usefulness. After leaving school, he was employed to 
teach by Mr. David Boyce, of Union county, uncle of 
Rev. James P. Boyce, D.D., now President of the 
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Louisville, 
Ky. Mr. Boyce employed him to teach only his own 
children, but whether he took him to his own house, 
or whether Landrum still lived with his uncle Ray, we 
have not been able to learn. This was in the year 1830. 
It IS stated that Mr. Boyce had two sons who were very 
wild and ungovernable, and fears were entertained that 
the young teacher would prove unequal to the task of 
controlling them. But the boys soon learned to love 
and obey him, and he performed his duties as instructor 
to the complete satisfaction of all concerned. He was 
still a diligent student himself, devoting most of his 
spare moments to reading and study, and advanced more 
rapidly than any of his pupils. 

On January 15th, 1831, he was ordained by the Pad- 
gett^s Creek church. Rev. Thomas Ray and Rev. Daniel 
Mangum ofBciating, and, as he himself expressed it, 
" clothed with all the functions of an ordained minister 
of the gospel.^^ He further adds : " When I received 
this solemn commission I was but little over twenty 
years of age.^^ The energies of the young preacher now 
began rapidly to unfold themselves, and his character was 
formed — ^that character which, through more than fifty 
years of change and trial, ever maintained its strict identity. 



CHAPTER ly. 

THE OPENING OF HIS LIFE WOBK — EEV. THOMAS 
BOMAR AND DR. JOHN W. LEWIS — MOUNT ZION 
AND NEW PROSPECT— CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY 
— GREAT REVIVAL BEGUN AT THE MEETING OF 
THE SALUDA ASSOCIATION — BROAD RIVER ASSOCIA- 
TION^ TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT LETTER FROM 

HON. SIMPSON BOBO — PREACHING IN THE TOWN OF 
SPARTANBURG AND ORGANIZATION OF A CHURCH. 

AN the 13th of June, 1830, Rev. Thomas Bomar, a 
^ good man and excellent preacher, who had long 
been the pastor of Mount Zion, New Prospect and Beth- 
lehem churches in Spartanburg county, fell dead while 
in the act of starting to church on Sunday morning. 
He had been a preacher for twenty-eight years, was once 
or twice elected tax collector for his county, and at the 
time of his death held the office of '' ordinary,^^ as it was 
then called. He was a man of culture and of literary 
taste. We have in our possession a very neatly gotten- 
up little volume, containing a short sketch of his life 
and death, written by Wilson N. Hurt, together with a 
circular letter addressed to the churches of the Broad 
River Association, and a collection of poems, religious 
and patriotic, the whole on gilt edge paper, and superbly 

bound in red morocco. The publisher's endorsement is 

51 



52 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G, LANDRUM. 

Spartanburg, S. C, 1837, but no such work was done in 
Spartanburg at that date. 

This good man had preached at Boiling Springs 
church on Saturday, and had gone to the house of John 
S. Rowland, Esq., where Geo. W. Royston now lives, to 
spend the night. He arose next morning, which was 
the Sabbath, in his usual health, but suddenly fell and 
died while making preparation to start back to Boiling 
Springs. His remains were interred in the Bethlehem 
church-yard, and the funeral sermon was preached a 
few weeks afterward by Rev. Drury Dobbins, from 
Rev. xxi. 4. 

By the death of this eminent minister the churches 
before mentioned were left without a pastor, and Dr. 
John W. Lewis, an eminent physician, and at the time 
a member of the Legislature from Spartanburg, and 
Deacon Edward Bomar were appointed a committee to 
look out for some man to take the place of the lamented 
Bomar. By some means the committee found their way 
down to Bethel, about twenty miles south of Mount 
Zion, and at the same time Landrum accompanied his 
uncle to the same place, about twenty miles north of 
Padgett^s Creek. 

Whether this meeting of the committee with Lan- 
drum at Bethel was the result of previous concert, or 
whether they were drawn hither by what they had heard 
of the " boy preacher,^^ or whether it was all one of 
those things which, for the want of a better name, we 
call accidents, we know not. We only know that Lewis 
and Bomar met Landrum at Bethel, the half-way point 



LIFE WORK, 53 



between them^ heard him preachy and invited him up to 
take a survey of the field. He accepted their invitation^ 
and on his way from Cross Keys in Union to Mt. Zion^ 
he spent a night in the neighborhood of Bethlehem mth 
Mr. Ealph Smith, father of William J. Smith, after- 
ward one of Landrum^s warmest and truest friends. He 
arrived in the neighborhood of Mount Zion the next 
day, and the result of the visit was that he was called 
to supply Mount Zion, New Prospect and Bethlehem 
churches. This was probably during the same month 
in which he was ordained at Padgett^s creek. He 
accepted these calls, and immediately repaired to the 
house of Dr. Lewis, where he sojourned for several 
years without cost. Dr. Lewis himself soon afterward 
became a preacher. Landrum afterward in his sketch 
of the Tyger River Association, paid a glowing and 
affectionate tribute to his name and memory. 

Dr. Lewis afterward removed to the State of Georgia, 
and, in a sketch of his life in Harrison^s Book of 
Georgia Baptists, we find it stated that there were two 
persons that were specially favored in their early days 
by his kindness and liberality. One was John G. 
Landrum, of South Carolina, and the other was Joseph 
E. Brown, of Georgia. A few years ago. Gov. Brown 
wrote to Rev. J. G. Landrum for a sketch of the early 
life of Dr. Lewis, and, in a letter to J. B. O. Landrum, 
dated Washington, D. C, March 8th, 1882, the same 
distinguished man says, " I have often heard Dr. Lewis 
speak in the warmest terms of affection of your late 
father.^^ In the same letter, Gov. Brown says of Dr. 



54 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDRUM, 



Lewis^ '' He was my friend when I needed a friend, and 
I had for him great admiration, and cherish still for his 
memory the kindest feelings/^ 

We have before us some facts in regard to the life and 
character of Edward Bornar, the other committeeman, 
that met Landrum at Bethel. We insert them as show- 
ing the religious character of some of the men of that 
day, and as an illustration of the mighty streams of 
influences that may flow down through the ages from 
one consecrated disciple of Jesus Christ, however humble 
his position, however obscure his life. 

He was born in Halifax county, Va., and came to 
South Carolina when a very young man. He was one 
of the eight male members that constituted the Mount 
Zion church at its organization. He was early elected 
to the deaconship and faithfully filled that ofiice through 
a long life. He was a warm friend to I^andrum from 
his first acquaintance, and a co-worker with him in 
building up the church and promoting the interests of 
Zion. His fervent piety and Christian example dis- 
pensed influences which still flow like rivers of incense 
among those who live after him. 

He began family worship in his house in early life, 
and as long as he lived would never retire at night 
before he had sung and prayed. In his old age he 
became feeble and could no longer kneel to pray. His 
eyes also became so dim that he was unable to read. 
He would then give out the lines of a hymn from 
memory, and, after singing praises to God, he would 
pray sitting in his chair. He died in 1855, in the 



LIFE wouk. 55 



eighty-ninth year of his age. His direct lineal descend- 
ants now number over one hundred, all or nearly all of 
whom are Baptists. Among them may be mentioned such 
men as T. B. Martin, deacon of Mount Zion church, 
Booker Bomar, late deacon of New Prospect, and John 
Bomar, long a member and deacon of the Spartanburg 
church, the founder of Glendale factory, and the man 
through whose agency that model and extensive manu- 
facturer, D. E. Converse, was induced to engage in 
business in Spartanburg. 

At the meeting of the Tyger River Association at 
Rocky Creek church, Greenville county, in 1855, a com- 
mittee, of which Rev. J. C. Furman was chairman, 
pronounced a glowing eulogy on the life and character 
of Edward Bomar. 

We have in our possession fragments of a letter 
written by Dr. Lewis to John G. Landrum, and dated at 
Oakland, Cass county, Ga., Sept. 6th, 1857. The letter 
is interesting as showing the position that he took, 
educated, liberal-hearted, benevolent man that he was, 
on a great question that then engaged the attention of the 
Baptists of South Carolina and of the entire South. It 
is further interesting as showing, by inference, the posi- 
tion of Landrum in regard to the same question. It 
was written in reply to one received from Landrum, and 
after some assurances of esteem and expressions of kind- 
ness, the writer proceeds as follows : 

" Your remarks in regard to the Tyger River Associa- 
tion and the contemplated theological school at Green- 
ville, S. C, have given to me a field of thought, and I 



56 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

will spend this leisure time in detailing some of my 
views. 

'' In the first place, I am very much inclined to the 
belief that as religious bodies extend the area of their 
operations, in an inverse proportion do they deteriorate 
in spirituality, or rather depart from t]^e simplicity of 
the gospel and become ' secular/ One hundred thousand 
dollars from South Carolina as a nucleus around which 
to build up a theological seminary in Greenville ! ! ! 
Well, my dear brother, the idea to me is startling. 
Now add to this four hundred thousand more from the 
other Southern States, and you have the sum of half a 
million, interest of which, at seven per cent., is thirty-five 
thousand per year. Put it into operation and there will 
be manufactured (don't be startled at the expression) in 
a few years a class of preachers who will declaim with 
measured automatical precision, and who will form a class 
among Baptist preachers, the ^lite of the clergy, whose 
calls to fields of labor will be weighed and measured by 
the accompanying salary. My brother, I don't like the 
system, and would not give a dollar to it — don't cut with 
me yet. Where did you learn theology, and how did you 
learn it? And if you could, when your theological 
school is in full operation, be the ^ fisherman ' boy of 
Tennessee again, do you think the theological class would 
recognize you as an equal ? It would not matter that 
you had your thousands waiting on your ministry — hang- 
ing on your words ; it would not matter that you were 
the honored instrument of adding thousands to the 
Church, there would be ^a great gulf between the boy of 



LIFE WORK. 57 



Tennessee and the theologian of Greenville. Brother 
Landrum^ all this is in the nature of things, or rather 
it is the working out of human means and human 
wisdom ; it is the inevitable tendency. The accumula- 
tion of Church wealth has hitherto been the aggrandize- 
ment of the clergy and the deterioration of vital religion. 
Such, at any rate, has been my reading of Church history, 
corroborated by my own observation. It may be that you 
have concluded by this time that I am writing under the 
influence of the vice of the age, to wit, avarice. Admit 
it, and yet it does not affect, I will not say the argument, 
but the history of the question. The great lights of the 
Church have been those mainly who came from obscurity, 
men whom God called and qualified. A manufactured 
preacher can't move the masses, can't stir the mighty 
depths of the human soul, can't talk feelingly of the 
glories of the Cross of Christ. The truth is, preaching 
is the preacher impressing himself on the people. 
There is an affinity between spirit and spirit, between 
mind and mind, between speaker and hearer. The 
language of the eye, the manner, the tear, the galvanizing 
battery of the man himself — these are the ' weak things ' 
which God has chosen to ' confound the mighty.' " 

The above is all that has been preserved of this 
vigorous letter, but it is enough to show the sentiments 
of this eminent man in regard to the theological semi- 
nary, while the parenthetical ^^ don't cut with me yet," 
and other kindred expressions, show conclusively that 
Landrum had taken strong grounds for the endowment 
of that institution. The truth is, Landrum, through life, 



58 LIFE OF BFV. JOHN G. LANJDBUM. 

was a constant and uncompromising advocate of educa- 
tion and warmly espoused and supported every enterprise 
that promised an educated ministry to the Baptist 
denomination. We could not accomplish the task we 
have undertaken in a manner half satisfactory without 
saying a good deal of Landrum^s friends and of those 
with whom^ from time to time^ he came in contact^ and 
who were^ more or less^ co-workers with him. "A man 
is known by the company he keeps/^ and Landrum^s 
life and life-work were so interwoven with the lives 
and works of others that it is impossible to separate 
them. ^* No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to 
himself.^^ Though one may tower far above the multi- 
tude in intellectual and moral power, yet in all the 
ordinary affairs which make up the sum of every man's 
life, others must act a part — must give direction and 
coloring to streams that mingle in the tide of his own 
destiny. 

When Landrum accepted the call to Mount Zion, that 
church was only three or four years old. It is true that 
there had been a sort of preaching station there, called 
an "Arm of the Bethlehem Church/' ever since about 
the year 1804; but it was not regularly constituted as a 
church until the year 1827. The Presbytery under 
whose supervision the organization was effected, con- 
sisted of Elders Thomas Bomar, James West and 
Abram Crow, assisted by Deacons Thomas Tinsley, 
Joshua Gosnell and Robert BuUington. There were 
about twenty-five members that entered into the organi- 
zation. At the constitution of the Tyger River Associa- 



LIFE WORK. 59 



tion^ on 31st October, 1833^ the church reported a 
membership of one hundred and twenty-five, showing 
a rapid increase in numbers during the first years of 
Landrum's pastorate. The names of the delegates to 
the first meeting of the Tyger River Association were 
J. G. Landrum, John W. Lewis, John Bomar, Jr., and 
Hezekia Pollard. 

The beautiful site on which the house of worship was 
erected is on a high ridge on the historic Blackstock 
road, eight miles west of Spartanburg, and was pre- 
sented by John Chapman, Sr. 

Mr. Chapman was one of the first deacons of the 
church, and continued to discharge the duties of his 
office until his death, which occurred in his ninety- 
fourth year. His son-in-law, W. P. Evins, Esq., an 
accomplished scholar and considerable philosopher, once 
said of him, " I think old Father Chapman is the most 
perfect man I ever knew. In my whole intercourse 
with him, I have never once heard him speak evil of 
any human being ;^^ and after the subject of these 
memoirs had lived a close neighbor to him for many 
years, he was once known to say of him, " My wife has 
never been sick but that old Brother Chapman has been 
sure to come to my house the next morning before 
breakfast, and to ask, ' How is the good lady this morn- 
ing?^ He would then immediately return home; for 
he was a man of unusual industry and never loafed or 
loitered anywhere.^^ During his life he had the pleasure 
at least once of entertaining the great missionary Luther 
Rice and the eccentric Lorenzo Dow. He was so 



60 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDEUM. 

impressed by the latter that he named his youngest son 
Lorenzo Dow Chapman. Mr. Landrum visited him 
just before his death^ and in answer to a question in 
regard to his condition^ received this reply : '' I am only 
waiting for the messenger^ death^ and I don^t under- 
stand why he tarries so long.^^ Such was one of the 
men on whom Landrum leaned during his early minis- 
trations at Mount Zion. With such members as John 
Lewis, Edward Bomar, John Chapman and John 
Wingo^ no wonder that the church moved upward and 
onward, and the word of God "grew and multiplied.^^ 

The New Prospect church, to which Landrum was 
also called, was constituted seven years before the Mount 
Zion, June 3d, 1820, with a membership of twenty-six, 
including males and females. The church was organ- 
ized in a meeting-house called Mount Vernon, standing 
near the sight of the present house of worship in the 
upper part of Spartanburg county, about eighteen miles 
northwest of Spartanburg Court House. The Presbytery 
consisted of Rev. Thomas Bomar, Rev. H. McDougal, 
William Underwood and William Lancaster from Cedar 
Springs; John Cantrell, James Turner, William Dob- 
bins and Davis Pope from Buck Creek and Samuel 
Gilbert from Boiling Springs. Rev. Thomas Bomar 
was Moderator and William Lancaster, Secretary. The 
organization was brought about chiefly through the 
instrumentality of Rev. Thomas Howard, who was its 
pastor during several of the first years of its history. 
Robert Bullington and Joseph Wilkes were the first 
deacons and William Wilkins the first clerk. During 



LIFE WORK 61 



the first twelve years of its history, it met in a little, 
inconvenient log honse, and was supplied with preaching 
by Revs. Thoraas Howard, Thomas Bomar and William 
Harman. Rev. John G. Landrum was called to supply 
it in 1832, and, excepting an absence of nine months in 
the army during the Civil War, preached to it without 
intermission through a period numbering exactly fifty 
years. There was little to encourage the youthful 
preacher when he first took charge of New Prospect. 
The membership had dwindled down to seventeen. The 
uncouth, incommodious log hut, called a meeting-house, 
stood in the midst of a community abounding in almost 
every kind of vice. The still house and the grog shop, 
those emissaries of Satan, were busy day and night, 
while horse-racing, Sabbath-breaking and their kindred 
vices were shedding baleful influences far and near. 
But under his ministry the little church began to revive ; 
the neighborhood began to feel its influence; society 
began to improve, slowly at first and almost impercepti- 
bly; but as the years came and went, one stronghold 
after another was gained, and men began to talk of the 
great changes that had taken place and to congratulate 
themselves- and each other upon the success of their 
church, and the progress of their community in intelli- 
gence, morality, and in all the refining and elevating arts 
and acquirements that follow in the wake of the ship of 
Zion. Forests were cleared and houses beautified ; schools 
were established and children educated ; intelligence and 
thrift rapidly took the places of ignorance and indolence, 
and the community, ere long, became known far and 



62 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

wide as one of the most progressive^ civil and enlightened 
of the land. An elegant new house of worship soon 
took the place of the log hut^ and in 1873 the church 
embraced a membership of four hundred and fifty-seven. 
It is stated by a committee^ recently appointed by the 
church to look up some facts connected with its history^ 
that during Landrum^s pastorate as many as fifteen 
hundred members were gathered into the church. For 
a quarter of a century or more the standard of morality 
throughout the whole region that comes under the influ- 
ence of this church has been such as would put the 
mixed population of towns and cities to shame. It has 
been very seldom^ too^ during that period^ that the 
church has had to deal with backsliding or oflFending 
members^ owing, in a great measure, to the absence of all 
the usual temptations which allure the feet of so many 
young members into the forbidden paths of vice and 
folly. Influence, sentiment and example throughout the 
entire community have, for a long time, all been on the 
side of the church, and the world has had but few repre- 
sentatives to advocate its fashions, its feasts and its 
sinful pleasures. 

This church licensed T. J. Wilkins to preach the 
gospel, who sought a field of labor in the West, and some 
years ago was called to his reward. It ordained the Rev. 
Thos. J. Earle, whose name among up-country Baptists 
is a synonym for piety, culture, modesty and usefulness. 
He has long been a successful teacher, as well as an emi- 
nent preacher, and no purer name than his is recorded on 
the Baptist roll or enshrined in the Baptist heart. 



LIFE WORK, 63 



The first deacons of the church were Robert BuUing- 
ton and Joseph "Wilkes. The first clerk was William 
Wilkins^ and he was succeeded by W. H. Foster. From 
time to time the church has ordained the fi3llowing 
deacons : William Robbs, W. F. McDowell, L. P. Wolf, 
S. Lancaster, Jason Wall, W. T. Wilkins, J. M. Brian 
and Henry Liles, all of whom, except Eobbs, Wolf and 
Wall, are still officiating. 

Many prominent lay members might be mentioned 
whose influence has been constantly exerted to promote 
the cause of the Divine Master, and whose exalted 
integrity has been recognized and honored throughout 
the community and county. Among these may be 
mentioned B. C. Wall, R. T. Wall, James Foster, Moses 
Foster, Thomas Brian, Elijah Alverson, Paul Cox, 
Felstan Coggins, G. W. Smith and Dr. W. P. Compton. 

The last named was a practicing physician, and a man 
of high Christian character. He carried his religion 
with him into the every-day duties of life, and, as he 
went from house to house alleviating pain and minis- 
tering to the suffering, he also frequently pointed his 
patients to the Great Physician, who alone could heal 
and save the soul. He represented Spartanburg county 
in the State Legislature, and was a member of the famous 
^^ Wallace House ^^ in the stormy session of 1876. He 
married for his second wife Miss Lizzie Landrnm, 
daughter of his beloved pastor and friend, with whom 
he lived happily until God called him to a higher sphere 
and to a higher state of happiness in the mansions of 
the blest. 



64 LIFE OF BEV, JOHN G. LANDEUM. 

The New Prospect church did not unite with the 
Tyger River Association until the year 1844. "VVe think 
that up to that time it had been a member of the Salada 
Association. 

We have long wondered at the almost marvelous 
growth of the New Prospect churchy and the almost 
marvelous development of the country around it^ and as 
we have done so^ we have admired and loved more and 
more the great^ good man who was the head and centre 
of it all, and we have thought that if his life-work had 
been confined strictly to this church alone, and that if his 
name had never been heard of beyond the limits of the 
New Prospect neighborhood, we could find even there 
enough of the fruits of his life and labors to justify us in 
pronouncing him one of the great men of the age. It 
may be, however, that his work there is more sharply 
defined and stands out in bolder relief. The line that 
encircles it is plainly visible, and the work itself is 
rounded up to something like perfection, and there it 
stands for all time, ^^a thing of beauty and a joy 
forever.^^ At other places, though the current may be as 
deep, the boundaries are less marked ; though the struc- 
ture may be more massive, the finishing touches of the 
workman are less plainly visible. 

The Bethlehem church, to which Landrum was called 
to preach duriog the same year in which he took charge 
of Mount Zion and New Prospect, was constituted in 
1800. When the Tyger River Association was organ- 
ized in 1833, Bethlehem was by far the largest church 
that belonged to that body. It numbered then two 



LIFE WORK. 65 



hundred and fifty-two members. As its history was 
written several years ago by Mr. Landrum himself, and 
will be published in this volume, we will not here take 
it up. 

With the call to the above-named churches, Landrum's 
life-work began in earnest. He opened a school at Mount 
Zion, into which he gathered the boys and girls of the 
neighborhood, and it was not long before his reputation 
as a teacher had extended beyond his immediate locality, 
and pupils came from other communities to avail them- 
selves of the benefits of his instructions. He was assisted 
at one time in this school by Mr. M. N. Chapman, son 
of John Chapman, Sr., who has been mentioned before. 
M. N. Chapman had a finished education for that day, 
and enjoyed the reputation of being the finest penman 
in the State. He was at one time a representative in the 
State legislature, having received the highest number of 
votes ever before polled for any one man in Spartanburg 
county. From him Mr. Landrum afterward purchased 
the beautiful home near Mount Zion, at which he lived 
so long and happily. 

The young teacher held frequent prayer meetings with 
his pupils, read the Bible daily in his school, preached 
to large congregations on Saturdays and Sundays, and 
frequently during the week, and all the time added to 
his own store of information by extensive reading, and 
enlarged his own intellectual capacities by intense appli- 
cation to study. Many of his pupils afterward reached 
eminent positions in life. Some of them, Avho are still 
alive and in distant States, have, since his death, paid 

5 



66 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDEUM. 

graceful and becoming tributes to his memory in letters 
filled with sweet and grateful recollections of the long 
ago. ^^The righteous shall be held in everlasting 
remembrance/^ 

There were^ at this time, comparatively but few 
churches in the upper counties of South Carolina, and they 
were situated so remotely from one another, that it was no 
unusual thing to find whole neighborhoods that rarely, 
if ever, heard the gospel preached. The Baptist churches 
that did exist were, in many cases, extremely weak, and 
were supplied to a great extent with preaching which, to 
say the least of it, was not adapted to the strengthening 
of the faith nor to the promulgation even of sound 
Baptist doctrines. Under this state of things, the light 
of the churches flickered faintly and feebly amid the 
surrounding darkness, and the struggles of the noble few 
were less for growth and progress than for very existence. 
The prospect was, indeed, calculated to discourage a less 
ardent Christian than John G. Landrum. But with a 
firm trust in a risen Redeemer, he ^^laid aside every 
weight,'^ and ^^ putting on the whole armor of God,^^ 
bent every energy of his soul to the great work, and a 
great day of grace was at hand. 

In August, 1831, the Saluda Association convened 
with the Brushy Creek church, eight miles from Green- 
ville C. H., and during the meeting there began a 
revival of religion which for extent and duration has 
hardly a parallel in the history of revivals. 

Several circumstances connected with the beginning 
of this revival are worthy of notice. One was the death 



LIFE WORK, 67 



of Rev. Lewis Rector, which took place a short time 
before its commencenient. Lewis Rector was a raan far 
ahead of the age in which he lived. It is said that he 
had had the hillsides on his farm ditched thirty years 
before hillside ditching became generally known and 
practiced in his part of the country. He was also a man 
of powerful intellect and unquestionable piety. He had 
preached to the section of country lying along the 
southern base of the Blue Ridge and extending as far 
south as the counties of Laurens, Newberry and Union, 
with all the powers of his great mind, and with all the 
fervor of his warm, devoted heart, ever since about the 
year 1800; but to those who judged by the immediate 
fruits, his preaching had seemed almost in vain. Yet 
the good old man, strong still in the faith, looked out 
into the unexplored future, and, just before he died, 
cried out, as if filled with the spirit of prophecy : '' A 
great revival of religion is near at hand. I have 
labored and prayed for it, but I shall not live to see it.^^ 
As Moses from the top of Pisgah looked over upon the 
sweet fields of Canaan, so from the last mount of earthly 
affliction Lewis Rector caught a sight of the coming 
harvest. 

Another circumstance connected with the beginning 
of this revival was a strange phenomenon in nature. 
The rays of the sun were dimmed by a dark spot on his 
disk, visible to the natural eye, and men who were not 
alarmed felt humbled, as under the finger of God, when 
they saw the pale, sombre hue that rested on the whole 
face of creation. The preachers who were at that 



68 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

meeting at Brushy Creek, eager to lay hold of every 
means adapted to the awakening and humbling of 
sinners, made happy and forcible allusions to the sur- 
rounding scene. Several preachers were there from 
Georgia, who had recently been in a great revival at 
home, and all things being seemingly ready, the great 
w^ork began. Landrum was there, a young man and 
a stranger. But he was appointed to preach and he did 
preach with a power that astonished his hearers and 
caused the most hardened sinners to tremble. The 
meeting closed on the fourth day, but the revival 
extended to other parts of the country and continued wdth 
little or no abatement for three years. During these 
years men and women rode on horseback fifteen, twenty, 
and frequently as far as twenty-five miles to hear the 
gospel preached ; the preachers went from house to 
house, preached from stands in the woods, and often, 
when these rude accommodations were wanting, stood 
under the spreading oak by the roadside, and '' reasoned 
of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come.^^ 
It is difficult now to state the precise results of this 
revival. Within an area of twenty-five miles square, 
thirteen new churches were formed, while the old ones 
were filled to overflowing. It is safe to estimate that 
during the whole period there were added to these 
churches between two and three thousand souls. Nor 
was the great work confined to the ignorant and excita- 
ble ; the best material in the country was gathered into 
the folds of the Church, and a new era dawned in the 
history of the Baptists of Upper Carolina. 



LIFE WORK. 69 



We get several glimpses of John G. Landrum during 
the year 1831, which reveal the fact that, young as he 
was (he was just twenty-one years old), he was a promi- 
nent actor in the great scenes around him. The Broad 
River Association met that year with Buck Creek 
church, and the historian of that Association, Rev. 
M. C. Barnett, has made the following record : '' The 
name of John G. Landrum now appears for the first 
time as a member of this Association. He was at this 
time quite a young man, but possessing such gifts and 
qualifications as a minister, that the Association was 
proud of him almost to excess. He was appointed 
(perhaps imprudently) to preach on the Sabbath, in the 
place of old and experienced ministers, which did not so 
well comport with the Scriptural injunction in reference 
to the younger^s being subject to the elder. However, 
he did not, as I have been told, disappoint the anxious 
anticipations of his brethren. He always possessed the 
powxr of making great efforts. Some men fail when 
there is the greatest anxiety for their best performance. 
This is said by Alexander Campbell to have been a 
weakness of Andrew Broaddus, of Virginia, that most 
distinguished minister of the gospel. Landrum never 
disappointed the expectations of his friends on extra- 
ordinary occasions. I heard him preach at an Associa- 
tion not fourteen years ago on the holiness of God. His 
thoughts were sublime, and when he supported his 
position by a quotation from Isaiah^s vision, ^Holy, 
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts ; the whole earth is full 
of his glory,^ his voice echoed over the hills as musical 



70 LIFE OF EEY. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

as the ^ sound of a dulcimer sweet ; ^ while it fell upon 
the ears of listening thousands in most overpowering 
eloquence^ making it another one of his efforts that met 
the anticipations of his brethren. He has now been 
in the ministry between forty and fifty years. Of 
course^ his sermons are more profound^ doctrinal and 
methodical than they w^ere in his younger days^ but 
whether they are more interesting to the common listener, 
is doubtful.^^ 

The above paragraph was written in 1871, just forty 
years from that Association at Buck Creek. It is further 
added, " Dr. John Lewis was a co-delegate with Lan- 
drum at this meeting.^^ 

We, who have often listened to Landrum's full, 
sounding voice, and have felt the power of the stately 
movement of his sermons before large audiences, know 
just how he said ^' Holy, holy,^^ etc. at Buck Creek, now 
fifty-three years ago. And though scholars and theo- 
logians may smile at the thought, yet the remembrance 
of those tones awaken strange and strong echoes in our 
hearts even at this distant day. There is a power in 
simple words which dry scholarship can never wield and 
which mere intellect can never attain. David Garrick 
said he would give a thousand pounds to be able 
to say ^^Oh,'^ like Whitfield said it; and the elder 
Booth turned the hilarity of a gay dinner party into 
weeping by a repetition of the simple words of the 
Lord^s prayer. 

The first public advocates of the temperance cause in 
Spartanburg were Hon. Simpson Bobo, Major H. J. 



LIFE WORK. 71 



Dean^ and Dr. Young, father of General P. B. M. 
Young, of Georgia. The first-named of these is still 
living, full of days and honors ; the other two have long 
since passed away. 

It was about the year 1830, when these three men, 
whose souls were stirred by the ravages that intemper- 
ance was making upon society, and whose hearts were 
sickened at the scenes of debauchery to be witnessed, 
especially on public days, at Spartanburg, came together, 
determined to do something toward stemming the 
mighty torrent and abating the awful scourge. After 
a consultation, they concluded to call a public meeting 
in the court house, without making known the object 
for which such meeting was to be held. Accordingly, 
notices of the meeting were posted on the street corners 
and on the highways, and when the day arrived a con- 
siderable crowd assembled in the court house, eager to 
know what was to be done. By a preconcerted arrange- 
ment, a certain prominent citizen, known to be a constant 
dram-drinker, Avas called to the chair. The object of 
meeting was then stated by one of the trio to be the 
organization of a temperance society, and while the 
speaker had the floor he made a strong speech against 
the evils everywhere apparent, and called upon all good 
citizens to unite in one effort for their abatement. Then, 
like those who were struck dumb by the announcement 
that ^^he that was without sin should cast the first 
stone,^' the audience began to disperse. They went out 
one by one, chairman and all, until only four men were 
left to organize the society, the three already named and 



72 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

one other. But the movers in the cause were not dis- 
couraged. They completed the organization — held the 
ground already gained, though it seemed hardly worth 
the holding — and vowed that they would wage unceasing 
war against the gigantic evil that was nursing crime and 
preying on the vitals of society. They boldly raised the 
temperance banner then in Spartanburg and called upon 
the people of the county to rally beneath its folds. The 
first to respond to the call were Major John Stroble, Dr. 
John W. Lewis and Rev. John G. Landrum. By these 
additions the little band was doubled in number, and 
greatly strengthened in intellectual and moral power. 
Then the crusade began in earnest. As we have in our 
possession a letter from Mr. Bobo, the only surviving 
member of that little band of moral heroes that began 
the temperance war, and as it throws some light on the 
early life of Landrum and relates some interesting facts 
connected with that period, we shall offer no apology 
for inserting it almost entire. The letter was written in 
1882, and addressed to Dr. J. B. O. Landrum : — 

" Deae Doctor : — You were kind enough to request 
of me a draft of my reminiscences of your father, my old 
and tried friend, and the friend of all whom he knew, 
and especially of the pure and the good of the human 
family. I first met him and heard him preach, I think, 
in 1829, at New Hope church, in this county. He was 
then very young, and was known as the boy preacher of 
great promise. He was the prot6g6 of the Rev. Thomas 
Ray, a Baptist preacher of high standing in his com- 



LIFE WORK. 73 



munity^ and a good man^ to whom he was related. I 
have often heard Mr. Landrum speak of him with great 
affection^ and acknowledge himself indebted to him for 
many acts of kindness. In 1830, 1 think, he first came 
to Spartanburg, and preached in the village and sur- 
rounding country v/ith great acceptability, producing a 
decided religious influence wherever he went. He was 
very soon called to several churches in the county, and 
continued to preach in the village. As there were no 
church buildings here, he preached in the court house, 
where he always had good congregations. I think it 
was in 1834, he organized a church of his denomination 
in Spartanburg, and caused to be built the first house of 
worship in the place. I need not tell of the remarkable 
success of his ministry. He received into the church 
many thousands of members — I have heard him say 
how many, but have forgotten the number — have no 
doubt more than any man in this county ever did. His 
influence over his members was remarkable for good, 
and his place will not be easily filled, in organizing and 
training up a pure church. Very early in life, in 1830 
I think, he joined the first temperance society ever 
formed in the county, and was to his death a noble and 
consistent worker in the temperance cause, going far and 
near to advance it and to break up the drinking habits of 
the people. To show the magnitude of the efforts of 
him and his co-laborers in the temperance cause, in 1843 
there were nearly three thousand persons in the county 
pledged to total abstinence. When Mr. Landrum first 
came among us, dram-drinking was common with mem- 



74 LIFE OF BEY, JOHN G, LANDBUM. 

bers of the church, so much so that it was a matter of 
constant reproach to the church. Treating with whiskey 
at elections by candidates was almost universal. A can- 
didate refusing to do it could not be elected to office. 
He and his co-laborers never ceased to oppose this de- 
grading practice until it was entirely broken up, at least 
before the public, and no one could be elected to office 
who was known to indulge in it. Intemperance is still 
a monstrous evil in the land, carrying ruin and desola- 
tion to the homes of many heart-broken wives, mothers, 
and children, yet there has at last come a time when 
the good people of the land are looking with hope to its 
final overthrow. The State has refused to grant license 
for the sale of whiskey outside of the incorporated towns, 
and may we not hope that the last stronghold of the 
hateful monster will be broken up and drunkenness 
driven out of the land. 

" Mr. Landrum was very much admired for his man- 
ner of performing the marriage ceremony, and was very 
often called upon to perform it. Though he was four or 
five years younger than myself, he performed that cere- 
mony for myself and wife. He was our bosom friend 
through life, and paid his last visit to us on the occasion 
of the celebration of our golden wedding in 1881, which 
was a joyous meeting to us all. On this occasion he 
met my children and grand-children to the third genera- 
tion. I have known of many interesting occasions, but 
I know there are other and abler pens to tell them, and 
therefore I will forego the pleasure. My friend has 
fallen asleep in Jesus, and is now; at rest in the abode of 



LIFE WORK. 75 



the good. God grant that we all may be permitted to 
join him in that blessed home. 

'' Eespectfully, 

'' Simpson Bobo.^^ 

Hon. Simpson Bobo^ the writer of the above letter, 
is now nearly four score years of age. He has generally 
avoided politics, but has represented his county in the 
State Legislature a time or two, and was for many years 
one of the leading lawyers of the Spartanburg bar. 
From early manhood he has been a warm-hearted 
Christian and a devoted member of the Methodist 
Church. He has abandoned the practice of the law and 
retired to the bosom of his family, and in his beautiful 
home in Spartanburg, surrounded by his descendants to 
the fourth generation, he is spending a serene and happy 
old age. 

Maj. John Stroble, to whom we have alluded as 
being among the first outside of the town of Spartan- 
burg to espouse the temperance cause, was also a devoted 
and conscientious member of the Methodist Church. 
He was born in CoUetin county, S. C, August 29th, 
1799. He was one of the civil engineers who located 
the South Carolina Railroad which, when completed, 
was the longest railroad in the world. He, too, repre- 
sented Spartanburg county in the State Legislature for a 
period of ten or twelve years, and through life was a dili- 
gent worker for the public good. He moved to Spartan- 
burg county in 1833, and settled on North Tyger river, in 
the vicinity of Bethlehem church ; though it was in July, 



76 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G, LANDEUM. 

1830^ while spending the summer at Spartanburg/ that 
he united with the temperance movement, and was elected 
the first secretary of the first temperance society ever 
organized in the county, on the 20th of that month, the 
duties of which office he faithfully discharged for nine- 
teen years. He was an ardent life-long worker for the 
cause. Reading the history of John the Baptist, when 
a boy, he was impressed with the words : " He neither 
drank wine nor strong drink,^^ and he resolved to be 
thus far like him. 

In a lecture before Stroble Lodge, I. O. G. T., several 
years ago, Mr. Landrum said, he and Maj. Stroble had 
known each other for fifty years, and through all of 
those years they had worked side by side for the temper- 
ance cause. 

Miss M. E. Stroble, from whom we have obtained 
most of our information concerning Major Stroble, her 
father, in speaking further of him and Mr. Landrum, 
adds : " They were warm-hearted Christian brethren, 
belonging to different denominations, but working for 
the glory of God and the good of their fellow-men. 
Friends were they as Jonathan and David were friends. 
He >ic jjc jk rpj^g death of Mr. Landrum was to 
us a loss. We never remember the time when we did 
not listen to his impressive preaching, his kind, fatherly 
words, and feel the warm grasp of his hand. It was 
always pleasant to have his presence in our home, and 
we would gladly have entertained him more frequently 
than we did, but so many others were anxious to enjoy his 
society that it seemed to us our turn did not come often.^^ 



LIFE WORK 77 



Major Stroble died many years ago^ and his dying words 
were : " I commend body^ mind^ soul^ friends^ children, 
substance — all to Jesus/^ 

It is pleasant to record these reminiscences of the af- 
fectionate and beautiful relations that sprang up and 
endured through life between Landrum and such men 
as Bobo and Stroble. They are lasting tributes to the 
high-toned, generous, Christian character of them all, 
and the advocates of the temperance cause especially will 
ever cherish their memories with unfailing gratitude and 
profound veneration. Nor wdll they forget that other 
honored name indellibly associated with theirs in the 
noble work, that of the gifted, pure-hearted, lamented 
Dean, who fell earlier in the battle. Let us recapitulate, 
for we love to dwell on the circumstances that brought 
these men together and bound them with the silken 
cords of a friendship that could be severed only by the 
hand of that ruthless earthly destroyer. Death ; and we 
have an abiding faith that the time will yet come in the 
era of the world^s progress, when the laurels of such 
men will be more fadeless than " victor^s wreaths and 
monarch's gems ; '^ and when their lives will shine with 
a steadier, brighter, purer lustre, than that which has 
graced the annals of all the world's conquerors and 
blood-stained heroes. 

Landrum and Dean were Baptists, staunch and true ; 
Bobo and Stroble were Methodists, conscientious and 
devoted ; and yet in early manhood they joined hands 
and hearts in a common cause, and toiled side by side 
for the elevation of mankind and the glory of God. 



78 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDEUM. 

What a rebuke to that narrow sectarianism which can 
see no good beyond its own circumscribed boundaries, 
and which is ever saying to him who does not bow the 
knee to its creed and extol all its selfish ends, "" Stand 
aside ; I am holier than thou ! ^^ 

Peace to the ashes of the sainted heroes ! Calm and 
bright be the closing days of him who still lingers on 
the brink of time ! It is true that the temperance wave 
rises and falls like the ocean^s restless tide ; but unlike 
the tide, each succeeding fall does not settle to its former 
level, and each succeeding rise rolls farther and farther 
inland. God hasten the day when the temperance waters 
shall rest on mountain, plain and hill, to ebb and flow 
no more ! 

We regret that in this connection we have not been 
able to give any particulars as to Dr. Young, whose 
name, it will be remembered, appeared with those men- 
tioned above in the first temperance organization in 
Spartanburg. The career of his gallant son in the Civil 
War, and in the halls of legislation since the war, is a 
part of the history of the country, but we have not had 
the means of information at our command that would 
enable us to say more of Dr. Young himself. 

In the year 1831, Landrum and others began to 
preach in the town of Spartanburg. Spartanburg now 
numbers between five and six thousand inhabitants, and 
boasts its complement of churches, schools and colleges ; 
but at that time there were but three Baptists, out of a 
population of a thousand or fifteen hundred, in the 
whole town. One account says there was but one pro- 



LIFE WORK, 79 



fessor of religion^ and that a lady upward of seventy 
years of age. But Mr. James Harris and wife, who 
still survive, were members of the Baptist Church at 
that time, and there were probably a few others of 
other denominations scattered over the town. But there 
was not a single house of worship and no church organi- 
zation of any kind. If there were more than the 
number stated pledged to the service of Jesus Christ, 
they were hidden away in the multitude not to be 
known by their fruits. How the people spent their 
Sabbaths with no '' church-going bell ^^ to summon them 
to worship ; what were the influences brought to bear 
upon the young ; what was the character of the amuse- 
ments and employments of a thousand people in the 
absence of Sunday schools, benevolent societies and all 
religious influences, we are left only to imagine. 

But the influence of the revival started at Brushy 
Creek soon began to be felt, not definitely at first, but 
vaguely and mysteriously. The manifestations were 
allied to those of presentiment — that unaccountable feel- 
ing which sometimes weighs heavily upon the heart, and 
which, men say, heralds the approach of mighty events. 
An observer would have been struck at first with the air 
of restlessness worn by those he met ; he would have 
seen that restlessness then settle into a deep solemnity, 
pervading the entire community, and he would have 
sought in vain for the cause in any outward circumstance 
or condition. It was the troubling of the waters of the 
pool of Bethesda by the angel of God. 

When Landrum first began to visit the town, he 



80 LIFE OF BEY. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

preached from the judge's stand in the court house; 
afterward he stood under the branches of a great oak 
near by^ and preached to large congregations, so uncom- 
fortably situated that nothing but the intense interest of 
the occasions could have held them together. So thrill- 
ing were the scenes that transpired here, that the spot 
became enshrined in the hearts of the people, and some 
were known to shed tears when they visited it, many 
years after the scenes by which it was hallowed had 
passed away. Samuel Gibson and Thomas Ray, of the 
Baptist, Michael Dickson, of the Presbyterian, and 
Charles Smith, of the Methodist Church, all took a part 
.in the meetings under the oak, and their labors laid the 
foundations of the present Baptist, Methodist and Pres- 
byterian churches in Spartanburg. 

At one time, too, during the year 1832, Rev. John 
Watts, of the Methodist Church, and Rev. John G. Lan- 
drum held a joint meeting in the court house, at which 
meeting twenty-two persons united with the Baptists, 
and a considerable number with the Methodists. The 
preachers would alternately give opportunities for con- 
verts to unite with the denomination of their choice, and 
all worked together in perfect harmony. Rev. John 
Watts was still living in 1882, though bowed down with 
age and infirmities. His daughter. Miss Sallie E. 
Watts, wrote during that year from Sandy Flat, S. C. : 
"Even the state of the revival in Spartanburg has 
escaped my father's memory. However, this fact ex- 
ists clearly in his mind that the Rev. John G. Lan- 
drum joined Rev. Armstrong, Rev. Dr. Lewis and him- 



LIFE WORK. 8l 



self on the second or third day of the meeting, and 
labored with zeal and power, both on the stand and 
around the altar/^ To Landrum, more than to any one 
else, does the Spartanburg Baptist church owe its origin. 
Many of the converts of the meetings just mentioned 
went to Mount Zion and Bethlehem, about seven miles 
from town, and became members of those churches. 
It was not until February 23d, 1839, that the church in 
Spartanburg was constituted and put into regular work- 
ing order. The Presbytery that constituted it consisted 
of Revs. Samuel Gibson, Elias Rogers and John G. 
Landrum. There were only twenty-five members that 
united in its organization, eleven males and fourteen 
females. Major John Earle Bomar says : " Rev. J. G. 
Landrum had been preaching at Spartanburg occasion- 
ally, and I think part of the time statedly, since 1830, 
1831 or 1832. I remember to have seen among my 
father's old papers (after his death, which occurred in 
1836), a subscription bearing date of one of these years, the 
object being to raise money to pay Landrum to preach at 
regular times. The old church building was erected about 
the time the Baptist church was organized. About the 
same time the Methodists built their church. Previous 
to this time, there was no house of worship of any de- 
nomination in the town of Spartanburg, and preaching 
was held in the court house, and sometimes at private 
residences. On more than one occasion, within my 
memory, it was held at my father's house, principally, I 
suppose, on account of my grandmother, Mrs. Rebecca 
Earle, who at that time was the only Baptist living in 



82 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

Spartanburg, if not the only professor of religion there, 
and was very old and a cripple, being unable to leave the 
house/^ * 

At the first meeting of the Spartanburg church after 
its organization. Rev. J. G. Landrum was unanimously 
elected pastor, to preach every second Sunday and Satur- 
day before. In October of the same year the church 
united with the Tyger River Association, then convened 
with the Millford church, located in Greenville county. 
H. J. Dean, J. Bomar and G. W. Bomar were the dele- 
gates to that body, and the church reported an aggregate 
of seventy-two members. Just before the meeting of 
the Association, and in the same month, forty-two mem- 
bers were added to the church by baptism and many 
others by letter. The revival went on, and in sixteen 
months the membership increased from twenty-five to 
about one hundred. Then something like a reaction 
took place, and we find by reference to the records that 
the church had trouble with some of its members. 
Several cases of discipline are reported, chiefly for the 
sin of drunkenness, and some were excluded from the 
fellowship of the church. 

Another union meeting is mentioned as being held in 
1841, at which fifteen were received by experience ; then, 
during the ten years which followed, there were only 
twelve additions by experience. But there were fre- 

■'^It will be seen that Mr. Landrum himself, in his historical 
sketch of the Tyger Kiver Association, also states that there was 
only one Baptist, and that the same person mentioned by Major 
Bomar. 



LIFE WORK. 83 



quent accessions by letter^ and at the close of the decade 
the membership had increased to one hundred and 
seventy-five, including many from the highest circles of 
society, among whom were numbered men eminent in 
the professions of medicine, law and literature. Then it 
was determined to build a better house of worship, and 
the present beautiful and commodious church edifice 
arose at a cost of about ten thousand dollars, every 
dollar of which may be said to have been paid by the 
time the last sound of the hammer had died away on 
the mountain air. 

In the meantime, Spartanburg had grown to a town 
of considerable proportions, and other denominations 
had entered the field in force. Wofford College was 
established within its limits, with an able faculty, under 
the auspices of the Methodist denomination, and Lan- 
drum saw that the surrounding circumstances called for 
renewed efforts and increased vigilance, if he would 
keep pace with the tide of progress and meet the 
demands of the times. He seemed to rise in power and 
resources as the tide rolled on, and upheld the purity of 
his faith and the dignity of his church with the same 
earnestness and convincing power with which he had at 
first stirred the depths of wickedness and shaken the 
foundations of unbelief. He was now in the prime and 
vigor of manhood, and his mind had reached the full 
maturity of its povfers. The frail body which had been 
thought destined to an early grave, as if it had been 
thrilled by the glowing fires of the mind or animated by 
the bounding impulses of the heart, had expanded into 



84 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

noble proportions, and was capable of sustaining almost 
any amount of mental or physical toil. And rarely 
were the powers of endurance and the capabilities of 
mind subjected to a severer trial ; for the demands made 
upon him were such as would have completely over- 
whelmed any man of ordinary ability and endurance. 

Up to this time, he had given but one Saturday and 
Sunday in each month to the Spartanburg church, with 
an occasional night or evening, as opportunity might 
suggest. The remaining Saturdays and Sundays in the 
month had been given to as many churches, scattered 
over a wide extent of territory ; and here and there was 
one that had its meeting on Tuesday or Wednesday, or 
on whatever day might suit the convenience of the 
preacher. In passing to and from these regular charges 
there was generally a series of appointments to fill on 
the road ; and, indeed, whenever it was known that 
Landrum was to be at any place at any time, there was 
almost sure to be a crowd there before him, waiting in 
eager expectation for his appearance. There was no 
singing in the house to invite the people in ; when the 
preacher entered the door of the church, such of the 
crowd as had not preceded him pressed immediately 
after him, and by the time he rose in the pulpit every- 
thing was as still as the grave. 

To those who knew him oiAy during the later years 
of his life, when good preachers and forcible preaching 
had become, in a measure, common, and when people had 
come to regard both with that sort of indiiference usually 
generated by familiarity, some of these pictures may 



LIFE WORK. 85 



seem too highly colored. But the writer himself cher- 
ishes many vivid recollections brought down from early 
boyhood^ of illustrations of the facts just mentioned, and 
there are many others still living who will give the 
same testimony. 

We have said that the circumstances at Spartanburg 
called for increased effort and enlarged operations. One 
revival after another took place as the years rolled by, 
and many good men and women were added to the mem- 
bership of the church. In October, 1857, Landrum was 
elected to preach to the church on the first and third Sun- 
days, and on every Tuesday night and Saturday before the 
first Sunday in each month; and one year afterward 
the call was extended so as to embrace the second Sunday 
and Tuesday night after the first Sunday in each month. 
During this period of his pastorate, he also preached on 
the afternoon of one Sunday in each month exclusively 
to the colored people, and it is said that the love and 
admiration in which he was held by these people was 
not surpassed by that of the whites. To perform all 
this work now on his hands at Spartanburg, " he rode," 
says Major John Earle Bomar, ^^from his home, a 
distance of eight miles, through sunshine and rain, 
heat and cold, and very rarely missed an appointment." 
We have heard from members of his family, that on 
the homeward night journeys from Spartanburg, he was 
often so exhausted by previous labors that he would 
fall into a sound sleep, and his faithful horse would 
follow the well-known road and carry him safely to his 
own gate. 



86 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

There is a break in the records of the Spartanburg 
churchy extending from September 1st, 1861^ until April 
10th, 1864, the clerk of the church having enlisted in 
the Confederate army at about the former date. 

After the first battle of Manassas, General O. E. 
Edwards, deacon of the Spartanburg church, who had 
borne a gallant part in the battle, returned home and 
raised the Thirteenth Regiment, S. C. Volunteers ; and 
Mr. Landrum, thinking his duty demanded it, went with 
this regiment, which contained many of his flock and 
many more of his friends and loved ones, to the scene 
of active operations in Virginia. 

We have in our possession a letter and a fragment of 
a written appointment of Rev. John G. Landrum as 
colporteur, in the army, by the late Rev. Dr. J. O. B. 
Dargan, chairman of a board that seems to have had 
charge of religious work among the soldiers. The letter 
is written from Darlington, S. C, and bears date Septem- 
ber 23d, 1861. 

The writer^s name is one that is loved and cherished 
by many Baptists of South Carolina, and as a scrap of 
the religious history of the times which will perhaps, in 
the years to come, be highly interesting, if not so now, 
we put both the letter and fragment on record. 

'' My Deae Brother Landrum : — Yours of the 
18th inst. came to hand a few days since. I delayed 
writing immediately in order to see Brother Lide in rela- 
tion to the amount of funds from the Tyger River Asso- 
ciation. It was not in my power to see him until Satur- 



LIFE WORK. 87 



day last. We are highly gratijfied at your acceptance of 
the appointment of colporteur under the auspices of the 
board. On the following page please find a formal com- 
mission. It is of no importance, but it maybe con- 
venient for you to have it. We do not think that the 
double office of chaplain to the regiment and colporteur of 
the board will at all conflict. Brother Lide promised to 
write to Dr. Pressly to-day, requesting him to forward 
to you at the camp near Columbia what funds were 
contributed by your Association."^ It may not be safe 
to send money by mail, so that the Doctor may wait 
for an opportunity to remit to you by some responsible 
person. 

" I wrote to Brother Rice yesterday requesting him to 
make an effort to increase the amount. We may have 
other funds which we will feel at liberty to appropriate 
to your support, but our main dependence, I think, will 
be upon the brethren in your section. We mil be 
put to it to obtain Bibles, Testaments and Tracts, but 
Brother Rice has full instructions, and will make every 
effort to supply you. We are very anxious to obtain 
a colporteur for Virginia also, if we can get the neces- 
sary amount to pay his salary. I have written to 

* By reference to the minutes of the Tvger River Association, of 
that yeai*, held about one month before the date of the above letter, 
we find the following : " After hearing the report, addresses upon 
the subject of colportage in our army in Virginia were made by W. 
D. Rice, General Superintendent of the Sunday School and Col- 
portage Board of the Convention, J. A. Broaddus, W. Williams, J. P. 
Boyce, J. G. Landrum, M. T. Sumner, C. J. Elford and L. Vaughn, 
and contributions amounting to $137.00 were made to the cause." 



88 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

Brother Walters, chaplain of Colonel Sloan's regiment, 
on the subject. 

" I trust, my dear brother, the Lord will bless, sus- 
tain and protect you, and give you a great harvest of 
precious, immortal souls among the brave defenders of 
our country. From present appearances, I think you 
will all soon be in active service, probably upon the sea 
coast of our own beloved State. We do not require it, 
but the board will be grateful to hear from you oc- 
casionally. 

^' May the good hand of the Lord, our God, be upon, 
around, and over you. 

" Your affectionate brother, 

^^J. O. B. Dargan.'^ 

Then follows the commission, a part of which has 
been destroyed : — 

" To All Whom it May Concern : 

'' This is to certify that Eev. J. G. Landrum has been 
appointed colporteur of the S. S. and Colportage Board 
of the Baptist State Convention of South Carolina. The 
field of his labors will be in the Thirteenth Regiment, 
South Carolina Volunteers, Colonel O. E. Edwards, and 
among all others of the brave men organized, for the 
State defences, to whom God in his good providence may 
give him access. We commend him to God and the 
word of his grace, and to the prayers and sympathies of 
all good men in dis — ^^ :h * * * 

Mr. Landrum remained in the army about nine 



LIFE WORK. 89 



months preaching, and laboring almost incessantly among 
the soldiers of his regiment, when his health beginning 
to decline, at the urgent solicitation of many friends, he 
returned to his churches at home. 

Colonel O. E. Edwards, the commander of the Thir- 
teenth Regiment, was one of the deacons (as has been said) 
of the Spartanburg church. He was an active, working 
Christian, and carried his religion with him into all the 
affairs of life. He was a relative of the Hon. Simpson 
Bobo, and a member of the strong law firm of Bobo & 
Edwards, later Bobo, Edwards & Carlisle, and brother 
to Colonel B. W. Edwards, of Darlington, the beloved 
president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. 
He frequently represented his county in the State Legis- 
lature, and was one of the most popular men Spartan- 
burg county has ever produced. He was known, and 
loved, and honored, by the whole people of his county, 
and no truer, nobler, braver man fell in all the great 
Civil War than this warm-hearted, genial Christian hero. 
The writer, though not a member of his regiment, saw 
him receive his death wound at Chancellorsville. Mc- 
Gowan^s brigade had just driven the enemy from a line 
of breastworks, and were holding them against a furi- 
ous charge for their recapture. McGoAvan had been 
wounded, and Edwards as senior colonel, had assumed 
command of the brigade. He was walking dauntlessly 
on top of the breastworks, a conspicuous mark for the 
enemy^s bullets, one of which did not long shun the 
mark. We wxre with him also just before the opening 
of the battle, in the hush and stillness that immediately 



90 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

preceded the onset^ during which both sides seemed to 
be silently gathering strength for the impending struggle 
— the time of all others the most trying to a soldier's 
nerves and to a soldier's courage. He was calm and 
collected^ almost cheerful and gay. Some one said : 
^^ How do you like this suspense ? '^ He replied : ^^ Oh ! 
I like it better than fighting.'' 

It was fondly hoped that his wound would not prove 
mortal and that his valuable life would be spared to the 
country^ but after weeks of sufferings borne without a 
murmur^ he died in the triumph of the Christian faith 
and in the full assurance of a blessed immortality. 

The period of Landrum's ministrations at Spartan- 
burg extended through twenty-six years ; having taken 
charge of the church at its organization in 1839 and 
resigned in 1865, much to the regret of the church and 
congregation. During this period he received many 
tokens of the affection wnth which he was regarded 
by his people, some of them tokens of a very sub- 
stantial kind. Among these may be mentioned a splen- 
did gold watch and chain from the ladies of his 
congregation which cost one hundred and ten dollars. 
On the inside of the watch case was the inscription : 
*^ Rev. John G. Landrum ; Presented by the Ladies of 
Spartanburg." 

He may almost be said to have planted the first germ 
of religion in Spartanburg. He left a strong and influ- 
ential church there, numbering among its members 
many humble, devoted Christians, as well as some of 
high, social standing and of great influence in the Coun- 



LIFE WORK. 91 



cils of the Baptist brotherhood. Some of these have 
passed away, but others have risen up to take their places ; 
and with such members as John Earle Bomar, Dr. J. J. 
Boyd, John H. Montgomery and others, perhaps equally 
active and devoted, the church is doing a great and a 
grand work. 



CHAPTER V. 

JAMES RAINWATERS AND JOSHUA RICHARDS — NA- 
THANIEL JACKSON — EXTRACT FROM MINUTES OF 
GREENVILLE ASSOCIATION — THE FIRST BURIAL AT 
MOUNT ZION SKETCH OF THE TYGER RIVER ASSO- 
CIATION FROM ITS ORGANIZATION AT MOUNT ZION 
IN 1833, TO ITS DISSOLUTION AT NEW HOPE IN 
1875. 

IN following up the history of the Spartanburg church 
in the preceding chapter, we have been carried, 
chronologically, far beyond many of the events and 
transactions which it is our purpose to record. 

When Landrum first came into Spartanburg county, 
it is believed that there were only two Baptist preachers 
to be found within all its borders. There may possibly 
have been others, but we can find no record of them. 
The two alluded to were James Rainwaters and Joshua 
Richards. Rainwaters is represented as having been a 
strong man for his day, and the epithet seems to have 
been applicable both to mind and body, as he was 
equally noted for physical industry and intellectual 
vigor. He removed to the State of Georgia, and his 
name has an honored place in Harrison's Book of 
Georgia Baptists. 

The other, Joshua Richards, was an Irishman, fully 
92 



TYGEB RIVER ASSOCIATION. 93 

the peer of Rainwaters in physical and intellectual 
strength, but given to the eccentricities and waywardness 
of his race. He had been a soldier in the Revolutionary 
War and was proud of his record. He was careless of 
his person, slovenly in his dress, and sometimes repulsive 
in his manners. He walked to his appointments and 
gave to distance neither thought nor consideration. He 
was at one time sent as a messenger to the Charleston 
Association. He made the journey on foot, and on 
arrival at the place of meeting was in a plight not very 
favorable to his admittance into the councils of refined 
and intelligent Baptists of the lower part of the State. 
But a neatly w^ritten letter by Dr. Lewis, which he bore 
to the Association, secured for him the consideration and 
kindness of brethren, and he is said to have returned 
delighted with his visit. There is a tradition in the 
county that Judge O'Neal once sent for him at 
Spartanburg, having come to cherish kindly feel- 
ings toward him from what he had heard of him, and 
that Richards responded to the request, clad in his 
old, tattered Continental uniform, with musket on his 
shoulder and cartridge box at his side. Thus accoutred, 
he is said to have been cordially entertained by the 
Judge. 

Near by our borders in Union county lived Nathaniel 
Jackson, who frequently preached at various places in 
Spartanburg. He was a maternal uncle to John G. 
Landrum, and, like Richards, had been a soldier of the 
Revolution. He was shot in the cheek: at Cowpens, 
and wore the honorable scar as long as he lived. In 



94 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDEUM. 

the minutes of the Greenville Association for 1883 
his name is lovingly and honorably mentioned in a 
sketch of " Head of Tyger Church/^ written by W. H. 
Goodlett. 

The following very suggestive statement is copied 
verbatim from the records of " Head of Tyger Church ^^ : 
'' Whare as we the Tyer Setelment and also the adjacent 
Neighbors have for this many years past had the Rev- 
erent Nathaniel Jackson as a Stated Preacher with and 
for us with any compensation worth notices^ and as we 
are acquainted with his situation in life, we think it our 
Dewty as a peopel to pay something to him as a Recopence 
for his services, as the Laborer is said to be worth of his 
hire, therefore we propose to pay to Thomas Barton and 
Reuben Barrett agt October meeting 1812 the sums 
to our Names Enexed to Inable tham to get for Said 
Jackson a hat, a Bige coat, a pare of Boots, an a nex 
handkerchief, and if there is not enof subscribed by 
us for that use to get at their Desivisions agreeable to 
the Superscription Witness our hands 28th day of 
March 1812/^ 

The first burial that ever took place in the Mount 
Zion cemetery was in 1832, and was that of Joshua 
Hawkins, an old Revolutionary soldier. He had fought 
in the battle of Brandy wine, had been wounded and cap- 
tured by the enemy, but had been released on parole. 
While at hom,e he began to scent the breeze that pre- 
ceded the gathering storm at Kings Mountain, and like 
the racer trained to the track, the first notes of prepara- 
tion aroused a spirit within which could not be easily re- 



TYGEB mVER ASSOCIATION, 95 

strained. That spirit got the better of his moral prin- 
ciple, and in flagrant violation of the terms of his 
parole, he hastened toward the scene of the coming con- 
flict, and arrived in time to bear a gallant part in the 
battle of Kings Mountain. He carried a leaden ball in 
his flesh as long as he lived, and requested that after his 
death it should be extracted, adding that he did not wish 
to be buried with British lead in him. His request was 
complied with. He was buried with the honors of war, 
Captain Coleman Wood, a soldier of 1812, command- 
ing the company, and Rev. John G. Landrum, the 
officiating clergyman. During the funeral discourse the 
preacher held up the ball in his hand and exhibited it to 
the large crowd present. 

On November 1st, 183e3, the Tyger River Association 
was organized at Mount Zion church. A " Historical 
Sketch'^ of this body, prepared by Mr. Landrum, is 
accessible to the public, and we propose to notice only 
such facts connected with the history of the Association 
as are not mentioned in the sketch just named, and as 
will give the reader some idea of Baptist progress in 
our part of the country, and of the religious work ac- 
complished by our fathers. 

We are met at the outset by difficulties arising from 
meagre and imperfect records, and as we proceed w^e shall 
often find that the very things which, above all others, 
nve wish to know are not recorded, or if recorded at all, 
it is done in such a way as to be unsatisfactory and 
almost useless. It is gratifying to know that in our 
own day a better system of records is generally kept, 



96 LiFIf OF EHV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

and it is hoped that those who are to live after us will 
know more of the religious transactions of our day than 
we know or can learn of the past. 

On Friday, November 1st, 1833, delegates from ten 
churches, dismissed from the Broad River, the Saluda, 
and the Reedy River Associations, met at Mount Zion 
church for the purpose of organizing a new association. 
The movement was the natural outgrowth of the great 
revival Avhich began in 1831, coupled with the incon- 
veniences attendant upon the broad extent of territory 
occupied by the existing associations. On motion of J. 
Bomar, Jr., Elder Phillip Ramsaur was requested to 
open the meeting by singing and prayer, and to act as 
moderator until the meeting was regularly organized. 
The names of delegates were then enrolled, and John 
G. Landrum was elected moderator and John W. Lewis, 
clerk. Two newly constituted churches, Mountain Page 
and Pleasant Grove, petitioned for admission into the 
body and were cordially received, making in all twelve 
churches that were represented in the first meeting. A 
committee was appointed to frame a constitution, and to 
draw up rules of decorum and an abstract of principles. 
The constitution adopted was mainly the work of Lan- 
drum, Lewis and Gibson, and was reverently maintained, 
with but few alterations or amendments, through the 
whole history of the Association. It was provided that 
it could not be changed except by a two-third's vote of 
all the members delegated, and the sentiment of the body 
was usually opposed to changes of any kind in the con- 
stitution. 



TYGEB RIVEB ASSOCIATION. 97 

It may be interesting to many to see the first tabular 
statement of the Tyger River Association, and we 
append it entire. Ministers' names are in small capitals ; 
licensed preachers in italics. Those marked thus * were 
absent. The contributions reported were all for minutes, 
and there seems to have been no demand for money for 
any other purpose. The Association held only two 
days, Friday and Saturday, and nothing is recorded of 
the meeting on Sunday. Indeed, the whole proceedings 
occupy only one page and a half of the minutes. It 
will be seen that Bethlehem was by far the largest 
church and Mountain Page the smallest. 

The minutes of the first meeting, including the con- 
stitution, rules of decorum, abstract of principles, a 
tabular statement, make up a little pamphlet of eight 
pages, and five hundred copies were printed by O. H. 
Wells, of Greenville, for thirteen dollars. The balance 
of the contribution of $19.52 is not accounted for in the 
minutes. It was probably paid to the clerk for his ser- 
vices, as the clerks during the early years of the Asso- 
ciation were always paid. Later, when education, mis- 
sions and charitable and benevolent enterprises appealed 
yearly to the liberality of the Association, the clerks 
generally donated their salaries to some one of the 
benevolent objects presented, and finally the practice of 
paying them for their services was by common consent 
abandoned. Their work became heavy as the Associa- 
tion enlarged its boundaries and increased its operations. 
Yet there were always brethren found wbo cheerfully 

performed all the duties of clerks without any remunera- 

7 



98 



LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDRUM. 



STATEMENT OF THE TYGER RIVER ASSOCIATION. 



Churches. 


Districts. 


Delegates' Names. 


Mem- 
bers. 


Contri- 
butions. 


Bethlehem, . . 


Spartanburg, . 


Abraham Crow, Eber 
Smith, Jas. Foster, 
Ransom Foster, Jas. 
Yates, R. Daniel, . . 


252 


82 50 


Clear Spring, . 


Greenville, . . 


Wm, Hoivard^^ Henry 
Brockman, J. L. 
Westmoreland, Wm. 
Johnson, 


194 


2 80 


Brushy Creek, . 


Greenville, . . 


P. C. Lester, James 
Watson, J. D. Smith, 
Edmund Miller, Dan- 
iel Mayfleld, .... 


165 


200 


Mount Zion, . . 


Spartanburg, . 


J. G. Landrum, J. W. 
Lewis, John Bomar, 
Jr., Hezekiah Pollard, 


125 


2 20 


Head of Tyger, 


Greenville, . . 


Jesse Center, Jefferson 
Barton^Wm. Howard, 






Washington, . 


Greenville, . . 


Isaac Lemons, J. J. 
Reynolds, William 
Robbs, J. N.Green, R. 
Jackson, B. Farmer, 


115 


130 


Green Pond, . . 


Spartanburg, . 


Philip Johnson, Geo. 
Johnson, Wyatt 
Vaughn, David Ross, 


108 


156 


Cedar Grove, • 


TiRurens, . . . 


M. Scruggs, M. Hughes, 
M. Fowler, 


97 


75 


Bethuel, .... 


Greenville, . . 


Frederick Hawkins, 
Nathaniel Vannoy, 
John Wilkinson, . . 


66 


225 


Pleasant Grove, 


Greenville, . . 
Spartanburg, . 


J. C. Green, Joel Ham- 
met, Jesse Foster, 
Wm. Cunningham, 
Jr., 


47 
53 


2 50 


Holly Springs, 


John Ballinger, J. M. 
Collins, J. C. Ballin- 
ger, T.R. Tucker, . . 


1 16 


Mountain Page, 


Buncombe,N.C. 


S. Morgan, 


24 
1246 


50 




$19 52 



TYGEB BIVEB ASSOCIATION. 99 

tion. Among those who served longest in this capacity, 
were J. M. Roberts^ C. J. Elford, O. E. Edwards and 
A. B. Woodruff, all of whom, except the last named, 
have gone to their reward. He has patiently and labori- 
ously served as the clerk of the Tyger River and Spar- 
tanburg Associations for a period of about twenty years, 
and is one of the best clerks in the denomination. He 
has also frequently served the Baptist State Convention 
in the same capacity. 

The second annual meeting of the Tyger River Asso- 
ciation was held with the Clear Spring church in Green- 
ville county, on the 31st of October, 1834. Landrum 
was again elected moderator, and Lewis, clerk. The in- 
troductory sermon was preached by Landrum from 
Ephesians, ii. 19, 20 : ^^Now therefore ye are no more 
strangers, and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the 
saints, and of the household of God ; and are built upon 
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ 
himself being the chief corner-stone.'^ The circular letter 
was written by Lewis, according to appointment, the 
year before, on the subject: ^^What is Love?'' It 
was a thoughtful, an able essay, in which the subject was 
philosophically treated and vigorously handled. We 
find that through all the early years of the Association, 
the circular letters were prominent factors in its opera- 
tions. They were carefully prepared on subjects assigned 
by the Association, and were extensively read and 
diligently preserved. Indeed, the greater portion of the 
time, during which the Association was in session, seems 
to have been taken up in considering the circular letter 



100 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

and in establishing and maintaining fraternal relations 
with other Associations. At the meeting at Clear Spring 
as many as six of the ablest brethren were appointed to 
write to as many different Associations, and as many as 
twenty-seven messengers were appointed to bear these 
missions of love and fraternal greeting. Nor was all 
this idle formality. The men appointed to write, wrote, 
and did their best ; and the men appointed to go, went, 
though the distance was often great and the difficulties 
numerous. In the list of appointed messengers at this 
meeting we find that Landrum's name occurs five times 
in the six appointments, and that associated with his are 
the names of Lewis, Rogers, J. L. Westmoreland, M. 
M. Wallace, Jesse Dean, Wilson Cobb, Jesse Center, S. 
Gibson, Jefferson Barton, and others who were after- 
ward prominent in the councils of the body and had a 
good report among all men. 

Six new churches joined the Association at Clear 
Spring, viz., Unity, Milford, Greenville, Sandy Spring, 
Rocky Creek and Abner's Creek, bringing into its 
councils two ordained ministers, Elias Rogers and 
Samuel Gibson, and a delegation representing about four 
hundred members. 

Rev. Samuel Gibson, who makes his first appearance 
in the Association at Clear Spring iii 1834, was a 
remarkable man. He was born in England and landed 
with his wife and wife's sister in Charleston, about the 
year 1815. He was indebted to a Sunday-school in 
England for such education in books as he had ; but he 
was endowed by nature with remarkable powers of 



TYGER RIVEB ASSOCIATIOK 101 

intellect, and he became an astute logician and really a 
learned and profound theologian. It is said that he was 
often asked by those who did not know his history 
where he had received his education. He began to 
exercise his gifts in an humble way in England, though 
without any thought of becoming a preacher. Deter- 
mining to leave England and seek his fortunes in 
America, he found himself in Charleston, friendless and 
almost penniless, as his means had been barely sufficient 
to defray the expenses of the voyage. 

The next day after he had landed being Sunday he re- 
paired to a Baptist church in the city, where one of those 
little circumstances occurred which we class in the chapter 
of accidents, but which sometimes show how God provides 
for all those that love him. When the minister had 
given out the hymn, the leader of the music failed to 
pitch the tune, though he made several efforts. The 
minister also, it seems, was unable to sing the hymn, 
and things were getting into an embarrassing condition, 
when Gibson arose in the congregation, raised the tune, 
and, with the aid of his wife and sister-in-law, sang the 
hymn through, carrying three parts without the help of 
another voice. This circumstance introduced him at 
once to the notice of the brethren, and learning that he 
was a blacksmith by trade and was wanting something 
to do, they employed him to make some repairs about 
the church bell, for which they paid him ten dollars, 
though he insisted on not taking more than two. They 
also offered to assist him in finding employment, and 
kindly invited him to stay among them. But Gibson 



102 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G, LANDRUM. 

was never the man to tax the kindness of friends ; and 
poor in this world^s goods, yet rich in the natural 
resources of a powerful intellect, and happy in the love 
of the fond, confidiug being who had followed him 
across the wide waters, he bade adieu to his newly-found 
friends in Charleston, and set out for the interior in 
search of a place on which to lay the foundation of his 
fortunes. 

He settled in rather a wild, thinly-populated region 
in Greenville county, where the gospel had seldom been 
heard and the restraining influences of religion seldom 
felt. The Sabbath was generally disregarded, and all 
the vices peculiarly incident to society in a rude state 
went unrebuked. 

This condition of things first made a deep impression 
on his wife. " The harvest,^^ she said, '' is ready, and 
there is no laborer to reap it;^^ and Gibson began to 
preach, moved, as he always declared, by her entreaties. 
This noble woman was his constant support for more 
than thirty years ; and often when he was tempted, from 
slight indisposition, to neglect an appointment, she would 
say, ^^ Go on, Sammy, a good pulpit sweat will cure you ; ^^ 
and he would go on, and he asserted that he always 
found it as she had said. Through her influence he 
applied himself assiduously to study, and became one 
of the most learned and powerful preachers of his day. 
Well does the author remember, when a little boy, to 
have gazed with childish wonder, mingled with awe, 
upon a little red-faced old man, with white hair, scru- 
pulously neat in his dress and peculiarly solemn in his 



TYGER ElVER ASSOCIATIOK 103 

appearance^ seated in a sulky and driving a snow-white 
horse rapidly toward a neighboring church ; and well 
does he remember how that wonder was increased and 
that awe deepened, when he noted the death-like still- 
ness that reigned in the congregation as he ascended the 
pulpit, and saw the trembling of strong men and gay 
women under the power of his soul-stirring words. 

He was a warm advocate of education, a rigid dis- 
ciplinarian, and, firm almost to stubbornness, he never 
swerved an inch from what he thought was right. The 
thriving church at Milford, in Greenville county, still 
bears the marks of his training ; and while his influ- 
ence is still felt in different parts of the country, he 
is often referred to as a living example of what, under 
the most adverse circumstances, a firm faith, coupled 
with untiring effort and final perseverance, may accom- 
plish. He was buried at Milford, Avithin a few steps 
of the pulpit from which he had so often proclaimed 
the gospel and warned the ungodly to ^' flee the wrath to 
come.^^ 

His wife died not many years ago, having lived to an 
old age, and having been entirely blind for several years 
of the latter part of her life. 

Elias Rogers, the other ordained minister that came 
into the Association at its second meeting at Clear Spring, 
was a member of Unity church and was at the time 
preaching to that church and to the Rocky Creek church. 
He was a man of strong will, of great moral courage, 
and of robust physical frame. He raised his voice at 
that early day against the sin of drunkenness, and 



104 LIFE OF BEV, JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

advocated total abstinence as the only safeguard against 
it. His boldness was not always subject to the dictates 
of prudence^ and his uncompromising hostility to the 
use of ardent spirits^ rendered him unpopular with many, 
and frequently involved him in personal difficulties 
from which a man of feeble physical powers would 
hardly have extricated himself. On one occasion he 
preached a strong temperance sermon somewhere in 
Greenville county, and some of his words being reported 
to a notorious bully who was not present, gave mortal 
offence to that dignitary of the still-house. The bully 
swore roundly and profanely that he would whip the 
preacher on sight or compel him to retract and apologize. 
Rogers was warned of his threats and advised by his 
friends to try to avoid an interview. But the interview 
could not be avoided. The bully confronted him in a 
crowd and asked if he had said what had been reported. 
Rogers asked, ^'And what if I did say it?'' ''Why,'' 
continued the bully, '' I said when I heard it, that if 
you said that, I would whip you as soon as I laid eyes 
on you." " Well," replied Rogers, " Mr. M — , I said 
it ; and as for whipping me, that is a thing which has 
often been tried and has never yet been done." It is 
needless to add that the bully concluded that prudence 
was the better part of valor, and the preacher went 
unpunished. 

The name of Rogers is not found on the minutes after 
1845. We think that he moved to the West in the fall 
of that year. 

At this second annual meeting of the Association a 



TYGER RIVER ASSOCIATION. 105 

committee was appointed on protracted meetings, and, in 
accordance with the recommendations of that committee, 
protracted meetings were held in March, May, and 
August of the next year, with Unity, Clear Spring, and 
Milford churches, under the auspices and direction of 
the Association. These meetings began on Friday 
before the fifth Sunday in each month named above, 
and usually continued through the greater part of the 
next week. They were attended by the whole or nearly 
the whole ministerial force of the Association, and were 
powerful instruments for good. It is doubtful whether 
our custom of holding union meetings on the fifth Sun- 
days is much improvement on that of the protracted 
meetings of our fathers. On reading the early records 
of the Association, one is struck with the zealous care 
with which it guarded the pulpit against impostors. In 
the correspondence between different Associations, the 
names of impostors are frequently mentioned, and one 
Association warns another against them. We find the 
following in the minutes of the meeting at Clear Spring : 
" We concur with the Moriah Association, in noticing 
Jesse Denson, as claiming himself to be a Baptist 
preacher. We disow^n him, and warn our churches 
against him.^^ 

At this meeting J. G. Landrum was appointed to 
write the next circular letter on the General Judgment, 
and John W. Lewis to preach the next introductory 
sermon. 

It is not in accordance with our purpose to follow the 
Association year by year, through the whole period of 



106 LiFi: OF hev. john g, landeum. 

its existence^ however strongly terapted we may be to 
pursue such a course. We have noted particularly the 
first two meetings, in order to give the reader of to-day 
some idea of the plan upon which the body started out and 
of the nature of the work in which it engaged, together 
with a glimpse of some of the men who figured in its 
councils. The prominent idea of the Association seems 
to have been that it was what it claimed to be, an Ad- 
visory Council, and advice was given on a variety of 
subjects, and warnings against a variety of dangers, in 
an outspoken manner, and without stint or measure. 
Numbers of questions were sent up by the churches to 
each annual meeting, which were answered faithfully and 
conscientiously; and hardly a meeting passed during 
which some impostor was not branded in no very minc- 
ing terms. 

At the third annual meeting held with Head of Tyger 
church, there was a preamble introduced setting forth 
the fact that great excitement prevailed in certain parts 
of the country, on account of the efforts made in other 
sections in the Abolition cause ; and that men under the 
garb of ministers of the gospel had been traversing the 
country, intending by ihm public course one thing, and 
their private course another, and had, by their conduct, 
caused suspicion to attach to the ministers as a body ; 
therefore it was resolved, '^ That this Association, both 
ministers and delegates, disclaim against all interference 
either by men from abroad or at home, in this matter : 
and we especially recommend to the churches which we 
represent, and we would enjoin particularly upon the 



TYGER EIVJEB ASSOCIATION, 107 

deacons, strictly to examine into the credentials of all 
strange ministers before they are invited to preach to the 
churches/^ 

The public was also warned in particular against one 
John B. Smith, who had been published in the Chris- 
tian Index as an impostor. Among the queries sent up, 
and answered at this meeting and at several successive 
meetings, were the following : 

Do females have a right (agreeably to Scripture) to 
vote in the election of deacons, or to the setting apart of 
gifts to the ministry ? — Postponed to next Association. 
(Answer, next year. — The female members have a right 
to vote.) 

Who are the elders of the church ? Answer. — The 
ministers and deacons : and in the absence of the min- 
isters, the deacons. 

Is it right, according to Scripture, to suffer a brother 
to preach, who believes in witchcraft, and professes to 
have the art of healing the same? Answer. — The 
Association advises her churches to discountenance all 
such characters. 

Is it right that a preacher of the gospel should obtain 
leave of the church to which he belongs in order to 
supply another church which requires his labors? 
Answer. — We think it is not necessary. 

Ought not afflicted members of the church to feel it 
their duty as well as privilege to call upon the elders of 
the church to pray for them ? And ought not the elders 
to feel it their duty to attend to such requests ? And, 
moreover, would it not be well for the elders to assemble 



108 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

for the express purpose of praying for the afHicted in 
their churches ? Answer to first clause. — We leave it 
optionary with the sick. To second clause. — It is the 
duty of the elders so to act. 

Shall a member of a Baptist church be permitted to 
retail spirituous liquors^ and yet retain his membership 
in the church ? Answer. — We deem it inconsistent with 
a Christian profession, that individuals should be en- 
gaged in the demoralizing business of retailing spirituous 
liquors — that such should be considered as accessory to 
the crime of drunkenness, together with all the nameless 
evils which are inflicted upon society ; and therefore, 
whatever forbearance particular cases would require on 
the part of the church, yet ultimately, that all who 
should persist in the business, after due labors had been 
employed to convince them of their errors, should be 
excluded from the fellowship of the church. 

What shall be done with a member of the church, 
who, hearing an evil report on a minister of the gospel, 
gives the report circulation, and also says he believes it ? 
Answer. — We think such member subjects himself to 
the censure of the church. 

The above specimens have been selected from the 
minutes of three annual meetings. They are sufficient 
to show that the churches generally looked to the Asso- 
ciation for information, and that the Association, in its 
official capacity, encouraged the churches to so look, by 
returning prompt and faithful answers to their questions. 

In 1837, at Pleasant Grove, the circular letter, pre- 
pared by previous appointment, on the subject of tern- 



TYGEE RIVER ASSOCIATION, 109 

perance^ was rejected in accordance with the recommen- 
dation of the committee appointed to examine it, " on 
account of its great length/^ and a circular printed in the 
minutes of the Edgefield Association was adopted as the 
circular letter of the Tyger River Association. It was an 
able letter on the subject of Foreign Missions, showing 
the progress of the work up to that time, and making 
a strong appeal to the brotherhood for their sympathies, 
their active aid, and their prayers. This seems to be 
the first time that the attention of the Association was 
directed or invited in any way to the subject of missions. 
Indeed, for the first twelve years of its existence, this 
subject seems never to have been once presented to the 
body for its official sanction or endorsement. This 
seems to us strange, knowing as we do that Landrum, 
its moving spirit, and many of his co-workers, were 
strong advocates of missions. It is probable that the 
Association had not yet been adopted as the channel 
through which missionary work was to be carried on ; 
and that the friends and advocates of missionary work 
labored at other places and sent their money through 
other channels. During the meeting at Pleasant Grove, 
in 1837, the Association took into consideration the 
expediency of becoming a constituent member of the 
Baptist State Convention, of South Carolina, and " after 
having freely deliberated on the subject agreed to do so.^^ 
Then in its explanation to the churches, and in its address 
to them the next year, we find about the only action 
taken that looked toward missionary work before the 
year 1845. It is a significant fact that aft^r becoming 



110 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

a member of the State Convention, the Association took 
great pains to explain to the churches its reasons for 
so doing, and to define exactly its true position. The 
following record is made : 

^^ The Association informs the churches composing it, 
that having united itself to the Convention, and being 
disposed to contribute to, and promote the objects it 
advocates, does not make it binding upon the churches 
to contribute to the objects of the Convention, but that 
they are left to act as they respectively think best in the 
matter/^ 

The State Convention met on Saturday before the 
second Sabbath in December following, at Edgefield 
C. H., and Landrum, then twenty-seven years old, rode 
on horseback from his home, near Mount Zion, and 
represented his Association in that body. 

Notwithstanding the very conciliatory message sent 
out, many of the churches next year clamorously and 
almost angrily remonstrated against the action of the 
Association in becoming a member of the Convention, 
and demanded that its action should be rescinded and the 
newly-formed relationship dissolved. Then the Asso- 
ciation replied, with some firmness, in the following 
words : 

" The Association being an advisory council, deems it 
inexpedient to refer her proceedings to those churches 
she is appointed to advise, either for their approval or 
disapprobation. She, as a body, is firmly and con- 
scientiously convinced that the objects contemplated by 
the Convention, to wit, Education and Domestic and 



TYGER RIVER ASSOCIATION, 111 

Foreign Missions, are objects which should enlist the 
sympathies and eiForts of all Christians. The Associa- 
tion has plainly and positively declared in the eleventh 
article of the minutes of last yearns session, referred to 
in some of the church letters, that the act by which she 
united as a body with the Convention, was totally inde- 
pendent of the churches, and in no wise nor in any 
degree binding upon them. We hope, therefore, that 
the churches requesting the above-named article to be 
referred to them, will, if they do not accord with us in 
opinion, at least permit us to discharge what we con- 
scientiously believe to be both our duty and our privi- 
lege.'^ 

This unvarnished enunciation seems to have had the 
desired effect on the turbulent churches, and we hear of 
no more dissatisfaction in regard to the connection of the 
Association with the State Convention. Landrum was 
appointed to write to the Convention, and was also one of 
the delegates to attend its next meeting. 

This meeting of the Association was held at Beth- 
lehem, in October, 1838, and on Sunday, after a sermon 
by A. Rice, of the Saluda Association, at the stand, a 
collection was taken up among the congregation for 
Foreign Missions, amounting to $65.12|^. The Finance 
Committee of the Association reported $41.60 sent up 
for minutes. 

This was the first public collection of which we have 
any account in the history of the Association, and we 
do not understand that this was taken up by authority 
or under the direction of the body. 



112 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANBRUM. 

The next year at Milford, the Association requested 
the churches to send up contributions for the support of 
Elder Isaac Lammence, who was ^^aged, needy^ infirm 
and helpless ;^^ and Elder S. Gibson was appointed 
agent to take charge of contributions for him^ to procure 
necessaries for his support, and to report annually to the 
Association. 

In response to the above-named request, the churches 
next year sent up $134 for the support of Lammence, 
and the Association resolved that the request made last 
year in regard to him, '' be continued in the minutes of 
this meeting, and until, in the providence of God, there 
shall seem to be no further necessity/^ 

The churches continued to send up punctually about 
$100 every year for the support of the aged Lammence, 
and Gibson continued his faithful and loving agency 
until 1847, when death kindly relieved the old preacher 
of his earthly wants and the churches of their earthly 
charge. The name of Lammence was afterward written 
Lemons, and a more extended notice of him will be 
found in Landrum^s ^' Historical Sketch of the Tyger 
River Association.^^ 

At the meeting held with the Green Pond church, in 
1843, a collection was taken up at the stand on Sunday, 
amounting to $27.50, and the Pleasant Grove, Green- 
ville and Bethlehem churches together, sent up $12.16 
for missionary purposes ; and the Association resolved 
that it all be forwarded to the State Convention, to be 
applied to Foreign Missions. 

At Bethel, in 1844, the Finance Committee reported 



TYGER RIVER ASSOCIATION, 113 



$45.47 sent up for minutes, and $4.25 for Foreign 
Missions. At the stand on Sunday^ after preaching by 
Landrum, Barnett, Martin and Andrews, the sum of 
$59.18 was collected for the American and Foreign 
Bible Society. In the minutes of this year's meeting is 
printed a short history of twenty-seven out of the 
twenty-nine churches that now^ belonged to the body. 

The year 1845 is known in the history of South 
Carolina as the " dry year.'' The rains were withheld 
from the early part of April until the latter part of 
August ; the heavens became as brass, and the earth as 
iron, and many crops were planted, and cultivated, and 
gathered, without receiving the visit of a single refresh- 
ing shower. The people looked upon the great disaster 
as a judgment from God ; and their hearts were filled 
with awe and alarm. The Association met that year 
with Head of Tyger church, and it is a fact of the 
deepest significance that it resolved to appoint a Board 
of Domestic Missions, consisting of seven members, to 
meet at least quarterly, and to have the direction of 
missionary work within the bounds of the Association. 
To aid this board in its operations a collection was taken 
up in the Association, which amounted to $61.10, and 
an appeal was made to the churches to furnish additional 
means for the maintenance of the board, and the promo- 
tion of its work. The churches also sent up to this meet- 
ing for minutes, $33.26 ; for Foreign Missions, $8.37 J ; 
for Elder Lammence, $101.52, and a collection was 
taken up at the stand for Foreign Missions, amounting 
to $16.72. The Association concurred ^^ with the Salem 

8 



114 LIFE OF EEV, JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

Association in setting apart Friday, the 5th day of Sep- 
tember next, as a day of fasting and prayer to Ahiiighty 
God for an intervention of His mercy to stay the great 
calamity which threatens our land and country ; that we 
may be supplied with the common blessings of life and 
the out-pourings of the Holy Spirit upon his poor, 
unworthy children/^ 

The following question was sent up and answered : 

" What course should a church take with a member 
who continues to run his distillery in the midst of the 
present awful and unparalleled drought, and the great 
scarcity of grain produced thereby, when his neighbors 
and the members of his church are threatened with 
starvation for want of bread ? ^^ Answer. — First, labor 
to bring him to a sense of his duty, and in case such 
labor proves unsuccessful, exclude him from the fellow- 
ship of the church. 

The clerk, J. M. Roberts, of the Greenville church, 
at this meeting refused to receive any compensation for 
his services, and his example, set in an hour of apparent 
calamity, was followed, as has been stated, by succeeding 
clerks, until the Association finally ceased to make ap- 
propriations for such a purpose. 

The above facts and figures are sufficient to show that 
the Association had imbibed a new spirit, and that in 
times of calamity and distress, God's true children 
always draw near to Him with oiferings of their sub- 
stance and chastened affections. We believe that the 
history of missions and other benevolent enterprises 
from that time to the present will show that the Lord's 



TYGEE RIVER ASSOCIATION. 115 

treasury has always been more easily and abundantly 
supplied in times of scarcity and calamity than in seasons 
of fullness and prosperity. 

But it would seem that the Association was not yet 
sufficiently humbled under the power and sovereignty of 
God, and a sudden and unexpected calamity befell the 
body while in session. 

Reuben James, an honored delegate from Clear Spring, 
and apparently in good health, while standing by the 
table engaged in transacting business with the Finance 
Committee, suddenly fell backward, and died in the 
arms of his brethren. 

Such an occurrence, it may well be believed, filled the 
whole assembly with feelings of the deepest awe. The 
Association passed strong resolutions of sympathy and 
condolence, and declared that it felt admonished by the 
severe visitation " to humble itself in prayer and self- 
examination before the Lord.^^ John L. Westmoreland 
and Stephen Griffith were selected to carry the corpse 
and the heart-rending news to his wife and family. 
The writer will never forget the impression made on his 
childish heart, when arising one morning from bed, his 
joy at finding his father at home one day earlier than 
expected suddenly gave place to unutterable sorrow on 
hearing the cause of his return. 

The Association met in 1846 with the Brushy Creek 
church, and the records show a marked increase in the 
interest manifested in the several objects which it had 
undertaken to promote. 

The report of the Board of Domestic Missions showed 



116 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G, LANDRUM, 

that a good deal of missionary work had been done 
within the bounds of the Association ; the union meet- 
ings had been promptly held and well attended^ while 
there were evidences that the cause of Foreign Missions 
was gaining ground and taking deeper hold on the 
affections of the churches. From about this time for- 
ward, a regular missionary sermon was preached at the 
stand every year, by some one appointed the year before, 
and a collection annually taken up on Sunday for the 
benefit of missions. 

There was also a ^^Book Concern'^ established at 
Greenville by the Association, with C. J. Elford as 
manager, and under the general direction of the Board 
of Domestic Missions. The Board employed a traveling 
agent, and in one year fourteen hundred volumes of 
Bibles, testaments. Sabbath-school and other religious 
books were put into circulation, and three thousand seven 
hundred pages of tracts and a number of Bibles were 
gratuitously distributed ; and the Board reported a 
balance of funds still on hand of $96.61. 

At the meeting in 1851, at Bethel, the Furman 
University, which had just been established at Green- 
ville, was represented in the Association by Profs. 
Furman, Edwards and Minis, and also by the traveling 
agent of the University, Dr. Pasley, and Elder Samuel 
Gibson, all of whom made addresses in behalf of the 
endowment of that institution. 

The Association now numbered thirty-seven churches, 
with an aggregate membership of three thousand two 
hundred and twenty-four ; and with the faculty of the 



TYGER RIVER ASSOCIATION, 117 

Furman University ^dded to its able corps of ministers, 
it was a great moral and religious power in the land. 

The Domestic Mission Board and Book Concern were 
continued until the different boards established by the 
State and the Southern Baptist Convention had reached 
a degree of efficiency that seemed to obviate the necessity 
of such organizations in the Association. While the 
Domestic Board of the Association existed, it expended 
in its operations about |400 annually. 

At the meeting in 1855, the aggregate contributions 
for the different objects before the Association amounted 
to $475.31, and a resolution was passed requesting the 
churches to report to the Association amounts contributed 
during the year through other channels, from which we 
are to infer that a great deal of benevolent work was 
done by the churches in their individual capacity, which 
was not reported to the Association. Indeed, we know 
that many scholarships were taken in the Furman 
University and in the Johnson Female University, and 
later that large contributions were made by individuals 
and separate churches to the endowment of the theo- 
logical seminary, of which we find no mention in the 
records of the Association. 

During the year 1855, the harvest of death was 
unusually abundant, and the Association was called 
upon to mourn the departure of many of its prominent 
and most faithful members. At its meeting that year at 
Rocky Creek, there were seats strangely vacant and 
voices strangely silent. Colonel John T. Coleman, of 
Greenville, James Layton, of Cedar Shoal, Prof. J. S. 



118 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM, 

Mims, of Furman University, the veteran Edward 
Bomar, of Mount Zion, Rev. Jesse Center, of Glassy 
Mountain, Major H. J. Dean, of Spartanburg, and 
Isaac Woodruff, of Bethel, had all been called to a 
higher sphere of action. The Association reverently 
paused in its proceedings, and paid loving tributes to 
their characters, and while bowed down with sorrow, 
poured forth expressions of devout gratitude that they 
had lived, and that they had been enabled to lead lives 
by which God had been honored, and good had been 
done to men. 

At the meeting at New Prospect, in 1856, seventeen 
churches reported flourishing Sunday-schools in their 
midst, and the Association urged upon its ministers the 
importance of manifesting more interest in the Sunday- 
schools connected with their churches, and of organizing 
them where such schools did not exist. From that time 
forward there was a standing committee on Sunday- 
schools that made its report annually, and the Associa- 
tion always manifested a lively interest in Sunday-school 
work. 

At this meeting, the Greenville church suggested a 
plan of systematic beneficence, which plan was recom- 
mended to the churches. 

The Clear Spring church sent up the following query : 

Is baptism by immersion valid, which is administered 
by one who does not believe it to be the only Scriptural 
mode ; or administered by one who believes it to be the 
baptism spoken of in the New Testament, yet does not 
require a confession of faith, but relies on immersion as 



TYGEB RIVER ASSOCIATION, 119 



accomplishing everything^ except an abstract belief in 
the doctrines of Christianity? 

J. H. Walker^ Rev. R. Furman and R. P. Goodlet 
were appointed a committee to report on the above-men- 
tioned query, but their report was laid on the table 
without being recorded, and we do not read that it was 
ever called for again. 

In 1857, the Association met with Holly Springs 
church. The contributions sent up by the churches 
aggregated $520.53 in cash. In the report of these con- 
tributions, we note, one dollar for Father Gibson^ and 
thirty 'jive cents for African Missions. 

The letter addressed to sister Associations, says : 

'' We have in contemplation the location of a Southern 
theological seminary within our bounds. Our dear 
Brother Boyce, who is the agent for this State, will be 
with you and present his claims to you. We commend 
him and the cause he advocates to your prayerful con- 
sideration, and hope that he will meet such success as 
the object merits.^^ 

The meeting in 1858 was with the Reeder River 
church. 

The Greenville church reported that it had contributed 
during the year to Foreign Missions, $1017 ; Domestic 
Missions, $200; Bible Board, $100; total, $1317. 

The Association this year was called upon to mourn 
the death of Elder Samuel Gibson, who had been gath- 
ered to his people like a ripe shock into the garner. He 
was pronounced '' a self-made man ^^ — '^ an able minister 
of the New Testament ^^ — '' eloquent, forcible and faith- 



120 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

fill ^^ — " a minister of great purity of character, sustaining 
in private life an unblemished Christian reputation/^ 

Two other ministers, Thomas Hammett and J. Hol- 
land Center, had fallen during the Associational year in 
the vigor and promise of young manhood. The latter 
was only twenty-two years old, and both were young 
men who bade fair to accomplish much in life, and the 
Association mourned for them, as a mother mourns for 
her children. 

The sad list of deaths was closed with that of Deacon 
Zachariah Lanford, of the Bethel church. It was said 
of him that ^Hie was modest, courteous, discreet and 
wise in counsel; safe, faithful and conscientious in all 
his actions,^^ and that the Association felt it '' due to de- 
parted worth to place this tribute of respect to his 
memory, and to award him the plaudit of ' good and 
faithful servant.' '^ 

While the angel of death had been busy within the 
bounds of the Association, the Holy Spirit had also 
visited many of the churches, and the committee on the 
state of religion reported that five hundred persons had 
been added to the visible kingdom of the Redeemer, 
within the bounds of the Association since its last 
meeting. 

Committees of three members each were appointed to 
report at the next annual meeting on the following sub- 
jects : Foreign Missions, Domestic Missions, Destitution 
in the bounds of the Association, the Bible Cause, Educa- 
tion, Sunday-schools, Colportage, Deceased Ministers, 
and such other subjects as were afterward determined. 



TYGEE RIVER ASSOCIATION. 121 

It was recommended at this meeting that Sunday- 
schools be established for the oral instruction of the 
colored people, but we hardly think that any of the 
churches acted upon the recommendation. It is a well- 
known fact, however, that in many Christian homes 
within the territory of the Association, the servants were 
often assembled for religious worship and instruction, 
and that all of the churches had portions of their meet- 
ing-houses set apart for the exclusive use of the colored 
population. They attended preaching with the white 
people in large numbers, were received as members into 
the same church, and frequently the pulpit and the 
whole meeting-house were accorded them for the use of 
their own preachers and their own congregations. It is 
doubtful whether, in all the luxurious freedom of the 
present day, their opportunities for sound religious 
instruction and healthy religious development are as 
great as they were in the days of slavery. 

In 1860, the faculty of the Southern Baptist Theo- 
logical Seminary were added to the ministerial force of 
the Association, and in point of talent, consecrated 
piety, and theological learning, it was now hardly sur- 
passed by any religious body of the South. It had 
now twenty-six ordained ministers and seven licensed 
preachers, and thirty-eight churches with nearly five 
thousand members. From its southern to its northern 
boundary the distance was fully seventy miles, and from 
its eastern to its western, the average m^ist have been 
more than thirty miles, making up an area of territory 
of something over two thousand square miles. 



122 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G, LANDRUM, 

We have thus liastily sketched an outline of the his- 
tory of the Tyger River Association during the first 
twenty-seven years of its existence^ down to a period 
within the memory of many still living. The remaining 
part of its history must be still more briefly told. 

During the war^ its annual meetings were continually 
saddened by the news of the fall of many of its beloved 
and honored members. Its main w^ork consisted in pro- 
viding for the spiritual and temporal wants of the army 
and in noble efforts to relieve suffering and supply the 
destitution at home. There was an aggregate diminu- 
tion, during the war, of about five hundred members in 
the churches represented, but with returning peace and 
prosperity to the country, the Association again rallied, 
and ere long regained about its former status. New 
men came into the body, new enterprises were set on 
foot and old ones revived, and the Association started 
out in a new career of service to the Master. 

In 1874, the plan of organizing county Associations 
began to be talked about and discussed among the 
brethren, and was warmly advocated by some and de- 
cidedly opposed by others. It was held by the advo- 
cates of the plan that the Tyger River Association had 
become too large and unwieldy, that its annual meetings 
were burdensome to the communities in which they were 
held, that its constituency were too much scattered, and 
that permanent committees could not come together 
without great inconvenience ; whereas with an Association 
whose boundaries should be marked by county lines, 
central committees could be appointed which could come 



TYGER RIVER ASSOCIATION. 123 

together easily and frequently at the court house, and 
the whole machinery would run smoothly and econom- 
ically. But what was stronger than all argument, it 
was told and rather industriously circulated that Lan- 
drum was in favor of the proposed change. Landrum 
had always been the head and centre of the Association. 
He had been its moderator twenty-five times — oftener 
than all others put together; indeed, had he not refused 
to accept the position, and had not the constitution of the 
Association been so altered as not to allow one moderator 
to hold his office longer than three years in succession, it 
is doubtful if any other man ever would have presided 
over the Association. He had been present at every 
meeting except one ; it was now approaching its forty- 
second anniversary, and he was the only living mem- 
ber that was present at its organization. If Lan- 
drum had said to break up the Association, so much 
did the people love and reverence him, that what- 
ever might have been their preferences, many of them 
would have yielded with scarcely a murmur. Still, to 
many, it would have been a great trial. The annual 
meetings of the body were associated with many sweet 
Christian experiences among the living, and with many 
consecrated memories of the beloved dead. So far from 
being burdensome to the communities in which they were 
held, their coming had always been hailed with delight, 
and never but once in the whole history of the Associa- 
tion had there failed to be an application from some 
church and community for its next meeting ; and then, 
in the poverty and distress caused by war, it was a 



124 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDEUM, 

matter of temporary oversight^ rather than studied or 
wilful neglect. The intercourse of the delegates among 
one another and with the families that entertained them 
had been of the most delightful kind^ and many strong 
fraternal ties had been formed^ and personal attachments 
had sprung up^ which would endure through life^ and 
be severed only by death. 

Under the influences of feelings excited by such reflec- 
tions, it was hard for the brethren to see that a change 
of organization would not do violence to all that they 
had loved and cherished in the past, and break up 
relations which had been endeared by time and conse- 
crated with the prayers and hopes and Christian experi- 
ences of more than one generation. 

Such is a brief description of the feelings and senti- 
ments of the delegates Avhen the Association met at New 
Hope church on August 13th, 1875. Rev. W. L. 
Brown, of the Broad River Association, preached the 
introductory sermon from John xv. 14, — ^' Ye are my 
friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.^^ 

Dr. William Williams, of the Theological Seminary, 
was elected Moderator; A. B. Woodruff*, Clerk; and 
E. S. Allen, Treasurer. 

Early in the session a number of churches petitioned 
for letters of dismission, and a resolution was offered to 
the effect that the moderator and clerk of the Association 
should be authorized any time between the close of that 
session and the beginning of the next, in case they had 
satisfactory evidence that any church connected with the 
Association had voted to ask for a letter of dismission, 



TYGEB RIVER ASSOCIATION, 125 

to furnish such letter of dismission without further 
action on the part of^ the body. 

It was plain to many that this resolution contained 
the seeds of dissolution^ and in the discussion of it, feel- 
ing ran high and words were spoken which we do not 
care to record. 

It turned out that Landrum's position had either been 
misunderstood or misrepresented, and that instead of 
advocating the dissolution of the body, he was deeply 
grieved at what seemed to be, at the time, the prospect 
of abandoning his life work. He addressed the Asso- 
ciation in a speech full of deep feeling and tender 
regard. Speeches were also made by Dr. John A. 
Broadus, Eev. E. F. Whilden, Rev. J. L. Vass, Rev. 
L. C. Ezell, and Brethren E. M. Cooper and A. B. 
Woodruff. 

The resolution was adopted, and the report of the 
committee on time and place of next meeting was re- 
committed with instructions to await further develop- 
ments. 

Though the organization was considerably disturbed, 
and it was clear that it would be weakened by the with- 
drawal of many of the Greenville churches, still it was 
by no means certain that it would dissolve ; as nearly all 
of the Spartanburg churches and some of the Greenville 
ones would still adhere to the old organization, at least 
until it was clear that some better arrangement was 
demanded. 

After reflecting upon the situation until the next day, 
Landrum came to the conclusion that under all the cir- 



126 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

cumstances it would be better for the Spartanburg and 
Greenville churches to divide^ with a view of forming 
separate Associations, and he accordingly framed and 
introduced the following preamble and resolutions, which 
were unanimously adopted : 

" Whereas, there is a desire upon the part of churches 
of this Association in Spartanburg county, to form an 
Association in Spartanburg county ; and, whereas there 
are other churches in Greenville county desiring to form 
a similar organization in Greenville county, therefore, 
be it 

'^Resolved 1. That the Tyger River Association, in 
accordance with the wishes of these brethren as above 
expressed, do now agree in brotherly love to divide into 
Greenville and Spartanburg divisions as the best means 
to reach this end. 

^' 2. That the churches be left to decide for themselves 
with which division they will unite. 

^^ 3. That the Spartanburg division meet at New Pros- 
pect church, on Friday before the third Sunday in 
August, 1876, and that churches desiring to be con- 
nected with this division send up delegates accordingly 
— and that the Greenville division meet at a time and 
place to be agreed upon by themselves.^^ 

The adoption of these resolutions put an end to all 
controversy, and the delegates generally yielded with 
becoming grace to what seemed to be the inevitable. 

Dr. Williams presided throughout the meeting Avith 
admirable tact and ability. Once, when considerable 
demonstrations of feeling were being made, he called 



TYGER RIVER ASSOCIATION, 127 

out in his own peculiar manner, *^ Oh ! brethren, the 
Tyger River Association is not going to die ! It is going 
to be the daddy of two Associations ! ^^ 

At the close of the meeting he delivered an earnest 
exhortation to the delegates, when the hymn beginning 
^^ Blest be the tie that binds/^ was sung, during the 
singing of which the brethren extended to one another 
the parting hand, and were afterward led by Rev. John 
G. Landrum in a devout, earnest and eloquent prayer. 
The moderator then declared ^Hhe Tyger River Associa- 
tion adjourned forever/^ 

Thus, as all things earthly do, the organization passed 
away. It had existed exactly forty-two years, and had 
accomplished the work which God had assigned it. 
From a humble, obscure beginning it had come to be one 
of the largest and ablest religious assemblies to be found 
in our denomination. At the time of its dissolution, it 
had thirty-eight ministers of the gospel, embraced thirty- 
six churches, and represented five thousand and eighty- 
six church members. We have hastily and imperfectly 
sketched its history not only because it is a history worth 
preserving, but, mainly, because the life of John G. 
Landrum could not be written in anything like detail 
and fullness without it. Whatever the organization 
accomplished — and it accomplished much — was more his 
work than any other man's. His life-work was confined 
to its borders ; his spirit pervaded all its operations ; his 
home was in its midst, and closely identified with it 
from the beginning ; '' he ne'er had changed and ne'er 
had wished to change his j)lace." He was its acknowl- 



128 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G, LANDRUM, 

edged leader from its first meeting, and though, in the 
course of its history, he came in contact with the best 
talent in the denomination, he lost nothing of his 
supremacy by the contact. He was its acknowledged 
leader to the end. 



CHAPTER V. 



LANDRUM A SCHOOL TEACHER — CONSTITUTION OF 

ABNER's creek church VISIT TO TENNESSEE 

MARRIES MISS ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY BOILING 

SPRING CHURCH PREACHES TO CHURCH AT NEW- 
BERRY DESTITUTION NEAR THE MOUNTAINS — 

ANOTHER TRIP TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 



XT AYING devoted the main part of the preceding chap- 
-^-*- ter to a sketch of the Tyger River Association, we 
return to the personal history of Landrum. We think 
it best, as we find him in particular connections and in 
certain departments of his work, to follow him through 
those connections and departments rather than attempt 
to carry his whole life-work along together and to give 
the desultory accounts which strict chronology would 
require. In 1834, Landrum opened a school at Rock 
Spring, near the residence of the late Isaac Morgan. 
He had previously taught at Clay Ford Academy, near 
the present residence of Calvin Foster. At Rock Spring 
he had among his pupils one who afterward became his 
second wife, and her brother, T. J. Earle. On taking 
charge of this school, it was necessary for him to change 
his place of residence ; consequently, he left the house of 
Dr. Lewis, where he had spent several "years so pleas- 
antly, and where he had ever been treated more like a 

9 129 



130 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G, LANDRUM, 

son than a guest or boarder. The associations of these 
years engendered an affection and cemented an attach- 
ment between these two men, which could not be 
diminished by the advance of years or obliterated by any 
earthly change. 

While teaching at Rock Spring, he boarded with Mr. 
James Ballenger, who had gained the sobriquet of 
" Old Wagoner James.^^ This man was a genial, whole- 
souled, merry-hearted old gentleman, and he and his 
wife Judith made the year 1835 an exceedingly pleasant 
one to the young teacher and preacher. It is stated on 
good authority that they refused all compensation for 
the year's board, and that their house was ever a perfect 
^' traveler's rest " for all who chose to enter. The '^ old 
wagoner" was noted also for the fine horses that he 
kept, and the delight he took in raising and managing 
them — a trait, which, if we mistake not, has come down 
to some of his descendants. He and his wife were ever 
afterward strong friends and supporters of Landrum. 
In trials that afterward came upon him they came 
promptly to his aid and stood by him with unswerving 
devotion. 

During this year at Rock Spring, he was one of the 
Presbytery, with Elias Rogers and William Rhodes, to 
constitute the Abner's Creek church. This church is 
situated on the Buncombe road, about four miles north- 
west of Reidville. It united early with the Tyger 
River Association, but did not grow as it was hoped it 
would do. Still it lived, and by the influence of such 
men as Rev. Jesse Allen, R. B. Monk, Rev. L. Vaughn, 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC, 131 

the Brockmans and others, it was held together. During 
late years it has had precious and extensive revivals, in 
which many young men and women of liberal views and 
progressive tendencies have united with the church, and 
it is becoming a strong and influential member of the 
Spartanburg Association. 

In 1835, after an absence of eight years, Landrum 
claimed a short respite from the active duties which 
were now crowding upon him, and paid a visit to his 
mother and the home of his childhood. Eight years 
had wrought wonderful changes in him and in many of 
the loved ones that embraced him in all their wealth of 
love on the threshold of the old homestead. But there 
are some things which, even in this restless, changing 
world, never change — among which is a mother^s love — 
except, perhaps, as the years pass by and the changes 
come and go, it takes deeper root in her heart and entwines 
itself in stronger tendrils around the object to which it 
fondly clings. We can only imagine in this case the 
overflow of joy with which she embraced her son, 
returning in all the bloom and vigor of young manhood, 
with his life consecrated to God and his voice tuned to 
the proclaiming of His everlasting truth. 

The fame of " Trigger ^^ had preceded his return, but 
the sobriquet began to fall flat on the ears that listened 
to his noble words, and to seem out of place to those 
who gazed upon his finely-developed form. During his 
stay, he preached at the old church at Mount Pleasant 
to a large congregation of almost breathless listeners, 
and frequently at other places in the neighborhood. At 



1S2 LIFE OF BSV. JOHN G, LANDEUM. 

the close of his sermon at Mount Pleasant, an old 
brother named Lamb prayed, and thanked God for 
sending the hoy over the hills to preach to them. 

An affectionate sister, Mrs. Ballenger, has retained 
through all these years vivid remembrances of the scene 
that took place when the time arrived for him to return 
to South Carolina. She says : " I well remember the 
morning he left to go back home. We children did not 
feel like we could tell him good-bye. We hid ourselves 
where we thought he could not find us, but he Avould 
not leave until he had hunted us all up and told us 
good-bye. It seemed like it would break his heart.'^ 

After leaving the family at the old home, and before 
returning to South Carolina, he paid a short visit to 
Mrs. Alexander, his sister, who had moved with her 
husband from Middle to West Tennessee. He was ac- 
companied on this tour by Garland Foster, one of the 
deacons of Mount Zion church. On the return home- 
ward, he passed through North Georgia, and by the 
present site of the great city of Atlanta. North Georgia 
was at that time inhabited almost exclusively by the 
Cherokee and perhaps other tribes of Indians. He 
traveled for three or four days among them, stopping at 
night at the agencies, or stands as they were called. He 
was one night the guest of Ross, an Indian chief of 
some celebrity. Dr. J. B. O. Landrum says : " I have 
often heard him (my father) speak of this trip through 
the Indian country. He said that one night a large 
crowd of Indians had collected at one of the stands and 
were waiting for the mail which was to bring them some 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETO. 133 

papers printed in their own language. While waiting they 
broke out into singing ^ Jesus^ lover of my soul/ and he 
described it as being the sweetest music he ever heard/^ 

A little book bearing the title, ^' The Southern Chris- 
tian/^ being a memoir of Anthony Jefferson Pearson, a 
young Presbyterian divine of eminent piety and great 
promise, of Spartanburg county, was published in 1835,, 
a few copies of which are still preserved. It was written 
by J. Boggs, and published by Ezra Collier in New 
York. A copy of this little book having fallen into 
our hands, has been perused with more than ordinary 
interest, furnishing, as it does, an example of consecrated 
talent, self-sacrifice, and the most exalted piety. 

The subject of the memoir and Landrum were about 
the same age; they may be said to have planted the 
North Pacolet Presbyterian church and the New Pros- 
pect Baptist church side by side ; ^^ the one was taken, 
and the other was left.'^ Pearson died in the twenty- 
fourth year of his age, five months after he had received 
his regular commission to preach from the Presbytery of 
South Carolina. The last chapter of the book referred 
to contains a letter from Landrum, which the author of 
the book says was received after the volume had been 
made up, but which, " as strongly confirming what had 
been said of the catholic spirit and heavenly temper of 
the Southern Christian, was most cheerfully subjoined.^^ 

We give the letter as a specimen of Landrum^s early 
composition, and as an evidence of the_ strong attach- 
ment, which, regardless of denominational lines, sprang 
up between these two youthful soldiers of the Cross. 



134 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

It was a beautiful^ though unconscious, tribute to the 
generous, Christian spirit which engendered such an 
attachment that forty-seven years afterward, when the 
writer of this letter lay in the icy arms of death at 
Mount Zion, an eminent Presbyterian minister rode 
fifteen miles through a storm of rain to pronounce a 
eulogy over his remains, and to mingle his tears with 
those that were falling around his bier. 

''Mount Zion, June 27, 1835. 
"Anthony Jefferson Pearson. 

"I became intimately acquainted with the Rev. J. 
L. Kennedy, now of Pendleton, S. C, in the year 1831, 
with whom I spent some delightful hours in con- 
versation. He often asked me if I had ever become 
acquainted with A. J. Pearson, remarking, at the same 
time, 'he is an interesting young man; upon an ac- 
quaintance, you would be highly pleased with him.' 
Mr. Kennedy always spoke in the most exalted terms of 
him. He admired him for his piety, evenness of temper, 
and prospects for future usefulness. All others, whom I 
heard mention him, spoke in the most exalted terms of 
him, and gave me a strong prepossession in his favor. 

" Some time in the year 1832 I enjoyed the long-an- 
ticipated pleasure of being introduced to the young brother 
of whom I had heard so many interesting facts ; and 
upon an intimate acquaintance, which was soon formed, 
I indeed found him an interesting young man ; intelli- 
gent, agreeable, and pious; a true lover of the Lord 
Jesus Christ and all his genuine followers. 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC, 136 

^^ Some time in the same year the Presbyterian church 
at North Pacolet solicited his labors. Not being yet 
licensed to preachy he attended and delivered lectures on 
the catechism ; in doing which he always used to pass 
the place of the writer's residence, so that he saw him 
frequently, and was always anxious that he should call^ 
which he seldom failed to do. By these interviews our 
acquaintance was increased, and I can truly add, the 
more I associated with Jefferson Pearson, the more I be- 
came attached to him. The first time I ever heard him 
speak in public was shortly after he had commenced his 
lectures at North Pacolet, when he delivered an impres- 
sive exhortation after a sermon had been preached from 
John ix. 28, ' The Master is come, and calleth for thee.^ 
In his exhortation he frequently urged sinners to comply 
with the calls of God, by repentance and faith, warning 
them of the bad consequences of resisting the Holy 
Spirit, etc. Though frequently with him, I do not 
remember to have heard him again until he v>^as licensed 
to preach; after which he made an appointment to 
preach at his father's residence on a certain evening. 
Being very anxious to hear him, I attended his appoint- 
ment. He gave an excellent sermon indeed, from the 
text, ' Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest.' His division of the 
subject rendered it plain and easy ; his illustrations were 
simple and readily understood ; his language, chaste and 
perspicuous ; his sentences, beautiful and sublime ; and 
his applications, forcible and impressive : in a word, his 
performance was as I anticipated ; for I had often 



136 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G, LANDRUM. 

remarked, when speaking of him, that his devotedness to 
his studies, his most excellent piety, together with his 
good natural talents and fine opportunities to improve 
them, would certainly render him an illustrious minister 
of the Lord Jesus. After hearing the above-named 
sermon, I heard some persons express themselves fearful 
that his manner of address was not sufficiently animated ; 
and, indeed, I had some fears myself on that account ; 
but on hearing him again, my fears were entirely re- 
moved. On a certain evening, w^hich I shall never 
forget (it being the last time my lot was cast with this 
worthy disciple of Jesus), I had an appointment to 
preach. Jefferson Pearson made it convenient to meet 
me (he being then a domestic missionary) and cheerfully 
took a part in the services of the evening, and exhorted 
after the sermon with great warmth. He proposed in 
his exhortation to offer some of the high inducements 
calculated to influence sinners to seek an interest in 
Christ, in doing which he spoke of the torments of hell 
which they might escape, and the glories of heaven 
which they might gain. In this exhortation, he set 
forth the horrors of the damned in torment, in most 
awful colors. What a description ! I thought surely 
there was not a sinner in the house that could avoid 
trembling, in view of such an awful catastrophe as was 
so eminently and awfully set before them. And on the 
other hand, the grandeur, the glory, and the endless 
felicity of heaven, he portrayed in the most eloquent 
and enticing manner. It seemed as if he, while in this 
strain of imagination, did not only ' see in part,' but 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 137 

that the veil was removed from before his eyes, and 
that all the glories of the heavenly region had burst 
into his mind with so much force and beauty, that 
one might almost have been led to conclude that ^he 
had been caught up to the third heavens/ In this 
memorable exhortation were contrasted the depths of 
hell and the heights of heaven. In treating of them 
alternately, the attentive listener's mind was caught 
by the most sudden transitions from the lowest and 
most wretched degree of misery to the most exalted 
and heavenly summits of bliss ; and then, in a thought, 
from the highest realms in glory down to the very bot- 
tomless pit. 

" In the closing remarks, he seemed, as it were, to 
hold out to the sinner destruction in the one hand and 
salvation in the other, and in the most powerful and 
pungent manner, bade him make his choice. 

" In a few days the Lord called this child of heaven 
home to the full enjoyment of those pleasures on which 
he dwelt so delightfully. This last discourse of A. J. 
Pearson had a captivating influence on my feelings ; and 
so shortly afterward hearing of his departure, it became 
indelibly instamped. It will, I doubt not, be remem- 
bered by me in eternity. 

'' Finally, when I am brought to view the many 
interesting traits exhibited in his character, I frankly 
confess that I have known, but few, if any, of equal 
worth. If he had a single fault, my partiality toward 
him never suffered me to behold it. 

"John G. LANDIaJM.^^ 



138 LIFE OP ttEV, SOttN G. LANdRVM. 

There is, perhaps, nothing in all of Landrum^s life, 
which more beautifully illustrates his lofty and generous 
spirit, and his utterly unselfish and magnanimous nature, 
than the above voluntary tribute to Pearson^s character 
and worth. The circumstances were such as would 
have awakened the envy of a man of narrow soul and 
selfish ends, and the gifted young Pearson would have 
been regarded with the jealous eye of a rival and his 
virtues, at most, permitted to rest in silence. But it is 
highly honorable to them both, that they soared above 
that spirit of envy, from which preachers of the same 
denomination are not always free, and each recognizing 
and appreciating the worth of the other, mingled lov- 
ingly together in social intercourse and worked together 
for the glory of God. 

On his return from Tennessee in 1835, Landrum 
began to make preparations for settling down at a home 
of his own, and of procuring him a help-meet to share 
with him its comforts and blessings, as well as the joys 
and sorrows of life. The preparations were made with 
his usual good sense and foresight, and unlike many 
young ministers who rush hastily into matrimonial 
alliances, and burden themselves with the care of fam- 
ilies before they are capable of adequately providing 
for their sustenance, thereby hampering and diminishing 
their own life-long usefulness, he delayed to step into 
wedlock, until he was well prepared with a comfortable 
home, and adequate means to make his life-partner 
contented and happy. He had been industrious and 
economical, and had accumulated sufficient means to 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 139 

purchase a nice farm near Mount Zion, which we have 
before mentioned, for which he paid thirteen hundred 
dollars. He erected on it, in 1834-'35, a first-rate house 
for that day, the main body of which is still standing in 
a good state of preservation ; and all things being ready 
during the next year, 1836, he was married to Miss 
Elizabeth Montgomery; Dr. John W. Lewis being the 
officiating clergyman. Dr. Lewis himself was still a 
bachelor, and several years afterward the present bride- 
groom was the officiating clergyman in turn, on the 
happy occasion of Lewis^ marriage. 

Landrum^s bride was the daughter of John and 
Margaret Montgomery, and was brought up in the 
Presbyterian faith, the family being staunch members of 
the Nazareth Presbyterian church. She was the fifth 
child, and had had early lessons of piety impressed upon 
her by religious parents, and had enjoyed such educa- 
tional advantages as could be had in the best common 
schools of the country. One of the instructors of her 
girlhood was Jonathan Hadden, a good old Presbyterian 
elder of Nazareth church. It is said that Mr. Hadden 
always opened his school with prayer in the morning, 
and at the close in the afternoon, would catechise his 
scholars on the Scriptures. His pupils were not always 
as well posted as he would have wished, for on one 
occasion, in answer to the question, ^^ Who was the wisest 
man?^^ little Chevis Montgomery, brother of Elizabeth, 
promptly, and in a loud, clear voice replied, ^^ Solomon 
Thompson V^ But such oflP-hand shoots from the little 
urchins under his charge were by no means indicative of 



140 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

the standard of Scriptural knowledge in the school, and 
the good man impressed many lessons of inspired truth 
upon his pupils, which yielded rich fruit in after years. 

Miss Elizabeth was afterward sent to the Poplar 
Spring Academy, which, we suppose, was presided over 
by Rev. J. L. Kennedy, as we have been informed that 
he taught there some years following 1830. He was an 
able teacher for his day, or for any day. Anthony 
Pearson studied the classics and higher mathematics 
under him, and he afterward established a school of 
high grade at Equality, in Anderson county, which was 
attended by many young men from different parts of the 
country; and as late as 1861, though then an old man, 
he was conducting a successful school at Williamston, 
S. C. While attending the school at Poplar Springs, 
Miss Elizabeth Montgomery boarded with her uncle, 
James Anderson, commonly known as " Tyger Jim,^^ a 
sobriquet applied to him from the fact that he lived on 
Tyger river, and a cousin of the same name lived on 
Ennoree. He was one of the sturdy men of the 
times, who, by energy and good management, acquired a 
handsome property, while his ready wat and overflowing 
cheerfulness made him the delight of a wide circle of 
acquaintances and friends. His youngest son, Maj. 
Frank L. Anderson, lives at the old homestead, and is a 
high-toned Christian gentleman of the true Southern 
type, and of the staunchest mould. Many a time 
through life did Landrum receive a hearty welcome at 
the home of " Uncle Tyger Jim,^^ and their intercourse 
and associations were of the most cordial kind. 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 141 

John Montgomery, Miss Elizabeth's father, was a 
prominent man in his day. He was a justice of the 
peace, and had served in the war of 1812 as orderly 
sergeant of Captain Brannon's company. His wife, 
Margaret Montgomery, was the granddaughter of Alex- 
ander Vernon, and daughter of Michael Miller. She 
was a woman of decided character, a devoted member of 
the Presbyterian Church, well versed in the Scriptures, 
and is said to have known nearly all of Newton's poems 
by heart. She lived to the age of ninety-four years, 
and died only a few years ago. She and her husband 
raised twelve children, all of whom lived to maturity 
and brought up families. Among her grand-children 
now in this country may be mentioned B. L. Mont- 
gomery, of Cross Anchor ; Major John W. Cunning- 
ham, of Greer's Station ; Perry E. Chapman, of Mount 
Zion ; Capt. John H. Montgomery, president of the 
Pacolet Manufacturing Company, and Colonel Thomas 
J. Moore, State Senator of Spartanburg county. At the 
time of her marriage with Rev. John G. Landrum, 
Miss Elizabeth Montgomery was twenty-three years old, 
her husband twenty-six. She had been thoroughly 
instructed in all the duties of domestic life, was a model 
housekeeper, and an adept both in the science and art of 
that prominent ingredient in the cup of domestic hap- 
piness — good cooking. Dr. Samuel Johnson once said 
that when a man came home hungry and found no 
dinner on his table worthy of his appetite, it was little 
consolation to him to know that his wife could read 
Greek. And we doubt if any of the tired, hungry 



142 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

preachers or wayfaring men and women, who so often 
enjoyed the hospitalities of Landrum's home, and feasted 
on the provisions of his plentiful board, ever stopped at 
the time to inquire, even in their own minds, after his 
wife's higher accomplishments. 

In the midst of her household duties and the cares of 
a family, she found little time for extensive or connected 
reading, though she was fond of religious literature, and 
especially so of the writings of Bunyan. Her husband 
being away the greater portion of his Sabbaths, she early 
established the home Sunday-school in the family, and 
devoted herself to imparting religious instruction to its 
members. She made home as happy for her husband as 
an earthly home could be made, and richly deserved the 
encomium that Rev. M. C. Barnett pronounced upon 
her twenty-one years after marriage — ^^ She was, in all 
respects, a pastor's wife." 

She remained a member of the Presbyterian Church 
for several years after her marriage, and, so far as is 
known, this fact never disturbed in the slightest degree 
the congeniality and perfect accord that existed between 
herself and husband. She attended the meetings of her 
church as often as convenient, while he was always 
engaged in his work at other places. On one occasion 
they left home together on horseback, the usual and 
about the only mode of traveling. He was going to 
meet an appointment at one of his churches ; she to 
attend one of her church meetings at Nazareth. They 
traveled the same road for a mile or two, when the road 
forked and they were to take different directions. On 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 143 

arriving at the fork^ he remarked^ "Well, I take the 
right, and you the left/' This was probably nothing 
more than a casual remark intended to be applied only 
in its most literal sense. But it seems to have made a 
deep impression on the mind of the loving wife, and to 
have brought vividly before her the fact that in the 
Christian journey through life, she and her husband 
were apparently traveling diiferent roads. She shortly 
afterward united with the Mount Zion Baptist church, 
and was baptized by her husband. 

During the year of his marriage, 1836, Landrum 
taught school at Mount Zion, and gave such time as he 
could spare from his school and churches to his farm 
and household. That time would seem little enough, 
when it is remembered that he was engaged in school 
five days in the week and preached every Saturday and 
Sunday, some of his churches being as many as fifteen 
miles from home. Yet his farm prospered under such 
supervision as he was able to exercise over it, and what, 
with his salary as a teacher and such sums as the 
churches contributed to him as a minister, he enjoyed an 
ample competency, and always had means to bestow 
upon charitable and benevolent objects, as well as to 
lay by for the exigencies of coming years. He con- 
tinued in charge of the school at Mount Zion for a 
period of ten or twelve years, assisted a portion of the 
time by Mr. Chapman, as has been stated. His school 
at this place became very popular, and was attended 
by many who afterward occupied eminent positions in 
life. His house was open to boarders, as were the 



144 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G, LANDRUM, 

houses of the neighborhood, and on his school-roll were 
the names of the Chapmans, Wingos, Highes, Fosters, 
Turners, Bomars, and others. The daughters of John 
Bomar boarded at his house, afterward the wives of 
Maj. John Earle Bomar, Maj. Thomas Bomar, and Dr. 
R. E. Cleaveland. Rev. J. L. Norman, of Gowans- 
ville, is, perhaps, the oldest living pupil of John G. 
Landrum. Mr. Norman says : " I went to school to 
him two months in 1830 at Marshal Wilbank's shool- 
house in Union county. This was all the school that I 
ever went to in my life. I was two years younger than 
Mr. Landrum. He was pronounced a splendid teacher 
by those who professed to know what good teaching was. 
* * * * "^ His activity in the ministry and at school 
soon beg^n to develop his body. He would participate 
in all the games of base and ball at school, and was what 
might have been called a professional wrestler. He 
could throw down the largest boys in the school, many 
of whom were much larger than himself.^^ 

Those who attended his schools at Mount Zion, bear 
the same testimony to his love of innocent sports and 
recreation. He is represented as having been a swift 
runner, and as having participated in all the athletic 
amusements of the boys, with hearty zest and enthu- 
siasm. He was also a good shot and an expert angler. 
It will be remembered that in the letter already given 
from Dr. Lewis, he is styled the "fisherman boy of 
Tennessee.'^ He and Dr. Lewis kept a pack of hounds 
between them, and often participated together in the 
excitement of the chase. We have been told that 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 145 

several j^ears ago W. C. Camp^ Esq., was having some 
chimneys built on his farm, and it came to his knowledge 
that the workmen had taken up, with a view to putting 
into the chimney, a large flat rock, on which Landrum 
used to stand and watch for deer, while others of the 
hunting party were making a "drive,'^ and that on 
learning the fact, the 'Squire, in the goodness and 
reverence of his heart, ordered the hands to carry it 
back, and leave it undisturbed ; feeling that the associa- 
tions connected with it, had rendered it sacred, and that 
it ought not to be used for ordinary purposes. 

These manly exercises and athletic sports furnish one 
key to the development of Mr. Landrum's fine physical 
frame, and the establishment of life-long and uninter- 
rupted health. They show, too, that notwithstanding 
his sickly appearance in youth, he was really endowed 
with a strong constitution, and was capable both of great 
effort and endurance. 

It is deplorable that so many of the great intellects of 
the present day are encased in feeble suffering bodies, 
just ready to fall into the grave, and that scholars and 
preachers who aspire to teach others how to live and 
how to die, often, from ignorance or utter recklessness, 
persistently violate the known laws of hygiene and 
the first principles of physiology, until they suddenly 
sink into untimely graves, or are left with impaired 
intellects, and frail bodies to battle with life-long disease, 
and to drag out a miserable and almost useless existence 
on earth. 

As early, perhaps, as the year 1830, one Jonathan 

10 



146 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G, LANDBVM, 

Guthrie, claiming to be a Free Will Baptist preacher, 
made his appearance at the Boiling Springs church, and 
began to proclaim his doctrines, and to create dissensions 
among the members of the church. This church is located 
about seven miles north of Spartanburg Court House, 
and is one of the oldest churches in the country. The 
earliest records state that it was re-constituted in 1792, 
from which record it is supposed that its first consti- 
tution was long prior to that date. There is no account, 
however, of the time when it was first constituted, nor 
of the causes that made a re-constitution necessary. 

Guthrie was a religious fanatic, bold, insinuating, 
turbulent and aggressive. He soon succeeded in winning 
over to his doctrines a majority of the church, and then 
he and his party took possession of the church property, 
and unceremoniously turned the minority out of doors. 
The church in its new role was repudiated by the Broad 
River Association, and by the Baptist denomination 
generally ; but Guthrie held his ground until about the 
year 1837-'38. About this time, either the Broad 
River or the Tyger River Association, requested Rev. J. 
G. Landrum to go over and look into the status of the 
church, and to do what might seem necessary to bring 
back the church to the Baptist faith, or to organize the 
remnant that had persistently refused to affiliate with 
Guthrie. 

Landrum found the ousted party few in numbers, and 
greatly discouraged and demoralized; while the domi- 
nant ones were bold, bitter and defiant, deprecating all 
jinterfereuce on the part either of individuals or religious 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 147 

bodies. They refused to allow Landrum to hold any 
meeting in the house, and some went so far as to threaten 
personal violence in case he persisted in interfering with 
them. 

Under these circumstances a stand was erected at a 
place near by, and Landrum preached regularly for a 
time to congregations in the open air. Among those 
who had stood out all the time against Guthrie were J. 
C. Kimbrel, Richard Turner, Absalom Nolen and Solo-* 
mon Bishop. It is said that these four men met regu- 
larly throughout the dark days of the church, and held 
regular conferences and transacted regular church busi- 
ness. The following entries are to be found on the old 
church book : 

" The arm of Mount Zion church commenced in 1828 
at the school house of A. K. Brannon, by the name of 
Little Bethel ; members as follows : ^^ [Here follow the 
names of four males and seven females.] 

Again : " The arm of Mount Zion was vested at 
Little Bethel in the year 1835, and was constituted in a 
church at Boiling Spring, in place of one that Guthrie 
tore up in the year 1830. — Solomon Bishop, C. C.^^ 

Landrum never failed at any time or place to draw 
.congregations, and the people about Boiling Spring 
turned out to hear him, including many of the adherents 
of Guthrie. Many of the last-named were reinstated ; 
Guthrie fell into grossly immoral practices, and found it 
convenient to go West, leaving the care of his flock to 
others; and at the end of three years from the time 
Landrum began to preach at the stand, the regular 



148 LIFE OF BEV, JOHN G, LANDRUM, 

Baptists, acting, it is said, under the legal advice of Mr. 
Bobo, re-occupied their house and re-organized their 
church. The followers of Guthrie went off and built 
another house in the neighborhood, after having tried to 
undo the repairs they had made on the old house. It is 
said that they actually prized up the house and took out 
a new silly which they had some time before put under 
it. Their organization soon afterward went to pieces 
and their new house of worship was abandoned. 

Having devoted a portion of his time for three years 
to reclaiming and re-organizing the Boiling Spring 
church, and having recovered for it its house of worship 
and established it on a firm, healthy basis, Landrum 
resigned the care of it into other hands. The work he 
had accomplished had been voluntary, and mainly, if 
not entirely, gratuitous. 

This church united with the Tyger River Association 
in 1840, and soon grew to be a large and flourishing 
church. From 1840 to 1854 it was supplied with 
preaching by J. Hamilton, S. Drummond, D. Scruggs, 

M. C. Barnett, R. Woodruff, McAbee, and A. 

Padgett. In 1854, Mr. Landrum again assumed charge 
of it, and continued to be the nominal supply until 
1861, though the demands upon his time were so heavy 
that he was compelled to engage an assistant. Rev. Wil- 
liam Lankford, to preach to the church in his stead 
during a portion of the time. The church has frequently 
been blessed with great revivals, during which, large 
accessions have been made to its membership; and at 
the breaking up of the Tyger River Association, it was 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 149 

one of the largest churches belonging to that body. 
Perhaps the greatest revival it has ever had was under 
the pastorate of Rev. John S. Ezell, which began in 
1863. Since that time, it has been supplied by Rev. T. 
V. Gowan and others, and the church has gradually 
enlarged its borders and extended its influence. 

About the year 1840, Mr. and Mrs. Landrum were 
called upon to suffer an affliction which shrouded their 
home in gloom and put their faith to the severest trial. 
They had attended preaching at Mount Zion, and on the 
return home Mrs. Landrum called on a neighbor, while 
Mr. Landrum preceded her, carrying in his arms their 
eldest born, a little bright-eyed, promising girl of some 
three years of age. On arriving home, he put the little 
girl down in the house, having first stirred up the slum- 
bering coals on the hearth, and went out to procure 
more fuel for the fire. Scarcely had he reached the 
wood-yard, when he heard the child scream, and on 
running back found her clothing in flames. The flames 
were extinguished, as he himself expressed it, " in the 
quickest possible time,^^ and it was thought that the 
child was not seriously burned, as no marks of the fire 
could be found on her body. But it soon became 
evident that she had drawn in the flame with her breath, 
and, after a few days of suffering, she died. It was a 
heavy blow to the fond parents, and it fell in a manner 
peculiarly distressing. 

In speaking of it to the writer of these pages, more 
than forty years afterward, Mr. Landrum said, " I felt 
like I could have torn the flesh off of my living body ; 



150 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

but/^ he added, " I learned to leave it all with God — ^to 
put it all behind me and to press forward to the things 
before/^ 

Mr. Landrum never wrote much. For a man that 
could write, and write well, there is remarkably little 
from his pen left behind him. A circular letter on the 
"General Judgment/^ in 1835; another on the "Com- 
munion of the Saints/^ in 1840 ; two more on the " Ofl&ce 
and Duty of Deacons/^ and "Duty of Churches to 
Pastors ; ^^ together with some historical and biograph- 
ical sketches, comprise about all of his written pro- 
ductions, with the exception of fugitive letters and 
heads of sermons. As to his letters, we have not 
been able to secure more than fragments of one or 
two for perusal ; and as to the notes of sermons, the 
paper on which they are written gives ample proof 
of the fact that they are the productions of his youth. 
They are dim with age and covered with the dust of 
time, and if he ever wrote a single sermon in full, the 
copy has not been preserved. He was applied to, time 
and again, for reminiscences of his work and incidents 
of his life for publication, but he always either declined 
to furnish them or furnished only the most meagre and 
unsatisfactory outline. The present writer remembers 
that while once writing some sketches for the Religious 
Herald, he applied to Mr. Landrum for information 
in regard to his life and work, and insisted on his 
overcoming that excessive modesty which had so long 
debarred the public from facts which they really wanted 
to know. His reply, it is remembered, was written on 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 151 

one page of note paper and contained nothing calculated 
to aid his biographer or to satisfy public interest. And 
yet he loved to talk about the good works of others, and 
probably more than one-half of all that he ever wrote 
for the press is to be found in his sketches of other men. 
In Judge O'NealFs ^' Bench and Bar of South Carolina/^ 
there is a biographical sketch of Major James Edward 
Henry, which was written by him, and it will be seen 
in his ^^ Historical Sketch of the Tyger Eiver Associa- 
tion/^ how fondly and lovingly he dwells on the names 
of the good men who had helped to make its history. 
Outside of religious works, his main reading was con- 
fined to biography and history, and in these he was 
deeply and widely versed. Especially w^as he conversant 
with the political and military history of his own State, 
and was fond of talking about the exploits of her heroes 
and the fame of her orators and statesmen. 

His life was too active to admit much use of the pen, 
and after reaching mature years, he preached without 
manuscript or notes. He talked incessantly, and could 
some Boswell have followed him, note book and pencil 
in hand, only for a few months, the public could have 
had a book surpassing in interest the life of Sam John- 
son. But alas ! his words, so full of wisdom, power, 
and true Christian philosophy, all died away on the 
ambient air, and there is no magic hand to gather up 
their echoes and set them on the living page. 

These circumstances would render it impossible for 
any living man to present to the public a life-like 
biography of John G. Landrum. His history is merged 



152 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

into the general history of his denomination and country ; 
while the every-day life, the fire-side talk, the evening 
walk, the neighborly intercourse, the fatherly advice, the 
tender warning, the bold rebuke, and the thousand and 
one things that make up true biography, must be sought 
for in the deep silence of death, and sought for in vain. 
He was through life an ardent advocate of every 
measure that promised to increase the facilities for 
acquiring knowledge, and to scatter the blessings of 
education over the land. The Furman University, the 
Theological Seminary, the Johnson Female University, 
the Limestone Springs Female High School ; each and 
all had in him a constant advocate and uncompromising 
friend. The last named, founded in 1846, and ably 
presided over by Dr. Thomas Curtis and son, for a 
period of fifteen years, received from him many sub- 
stantial tokens of warm support and hearty encour- 
aofement. The relations between him and Dr. Curtis 
were most intimate, and in his sketch of Maj. Henry, 
for O'Neairs ^^ Bench and Bar,^^ before alluded to, he 
thought it worth while to say of the lamented Henry, 
that ^^he was a strong supporter of the Limestone 
Springs Female High School.^^ There is a letter before 
us from Dr. Curtis to him, which is full of warm friend- 
ship, and the most implicit, unsuspecting child-like 
confidence. We would like to make part of the letter 
public, but dare not do so, lest we invade the sanctity of 
the family circle, and betray the generous confidence of 
the noble dead. His relations to Judge O'Neall were of 
the same warm, friendly, confidential nature. 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC, 153 

After Dr. Curtis was lost at sea, a Avill of his was 
found, written in his own hand, to which Landrum and 
O'Neall were made executors, but which, owing to some 
little teclmical defect or oversight, could not be legally 
executed. Under the influence mainly of O'Neall, who 
lived at Newberry C. H., Landrum was prevailed upon 
to preach to the Newberry church one Sunday, and 
Saturday before in each month, which he did for two 
whole years, 1847 and 1848. He had the year previous 
to 1847, supplied the Greenville Baptist church, at 
Greenville C. H. Greenville was twenty-five miles 
from his home at Mount Zion, and Newberry was over 
sixty. He attended these churches on horseback, riding 
fifty miles once a month, to and from Greenville, and 
one hundred and twenty miles as often, to and from 
Newberry. The city pastor of to-day, who is snugly 
ensconced in his comfortable parsonage, and who, with 
cane and umbrella walks the smoothly paved streets, or 
rides in the comfortable street car to the meetings of his 
flock, and to the homes that he visits, can form from 
experience no idea of the amount of physical toil that 
Landrum, during his life, performed as a herald of the 
Cross of Jesus Christ. 

During the year 1848, there seems to have been an 
unusual scarcity of preachers and preaching in the 
region near the mountains, and included within the 
boundaries of the Tyger River Association ; and Mr. 
Landrum actually supplied, by weekly appointments, 
Cross Roads, Pleasant Hill, Head of Tyger and North 
Fork of Saluda churches, making in all eight churches 



154 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

of which he was the regular pastor, and which required of 
him sixteen sermons, and at least two hundred and fifty 
miles horseback journeying every month. In regard to 
the churches named above which held their meetings in 
the week, we have been able to gather but little infor- 
mation, except concerning the Cross Roads church. 
This church was organized as an arm of Head of Tyger 
in 1809, but was not formally constituted as a separate 
church until 1820. It was located one mile west of its 
present site, where the roads cross each other ; hence the 
name Cross Roads. In 1845, some gentlemen, who 
were not then members of any church, invited Mr. 
Landrum to come and preach to the congregation at the 
old meeting-house. He agreed to comply with the 
request, and during the same year he was prevailed upon 
to accept the regular charge of the church. He retained 
this charge until the fall of 1849, about four years, 
supplying the church all the time in the week; his 
Sabbaths being employed elsewhere. During his charge, 
a new house of worship was built, and many of the best 
citizens of the neighborhood were added to the church 
by baptism. Among these were J. J. Hunt, Col. R. P. 
Goodlett, A. D. Goodlett, John Campbell, J. J. Whitten, 
Dr. A. W. Whitten and others, beside some pious and 
refined ladies. The two Goodlett^ s were both made 
deacons, which office they filled well for a number of 
years. R. P. Goodlett moved to Greenville, where he 
died several years ago. A. D. Goodlett lived and died 
an honored member of the Cross Roads church. He 
was noted for his good sense, sound doctrinal views, and 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 155 

upright life. He was a strong believer in the sovereignty 
of God^ and in His grace and providence, and was 
regarded by some as a "Hard Shell/^ He was a firm 
supporter of his pastor ; always ready to help him, and 
to sympathize with him in his work. 

During a part of the time of Mr. Landrum^s ministry 
at Cross Roads, Rev. Samuel Gibson preached to the 
church one Sabbath in the month, but the regular church 
meetings were still held in the week. 

Again, in 1853, Mr. Landrum was called by the same 
church to the same kind of labor, viz. : weekday preach- 
ing, and he supplied it until 1855. Rev. Bailey Bruce, 
of North Carolina, supplied it then one year, when Rev. 
Thos. J. Earle was called to the charge of it, and he has 
faithfully and ably supplied it now for a period of 
twenty-eight years. He is a man of culture, unquestion- 
able piety, and spotless integrity, and his people love 
him with a devotion which will hardly admit of any 
change in their relations until death shall snatch him 
from their embrace and transfer him to a higher sphere. 

It may be added that the church is now known as the 
Gowensville church, having changed its name in 1878, 
in order to adapt it to the name of the thriving little 
educational village near which it is situated. In this 
village is the Gowensville Seminary, founded by Rev. 
T. J. Earle, and presided over by him for many years 
with marked ability and success. He has given the best 
years of his life and the best energies of his soul to the 
cause of true Christian education, and though blessed 
with an ample share of this world^s goods, there is yet 



156 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G, LANDRUM. 

no abatement in his activity and no diminution in his 
zeal. The world will be much the better for T. J. 
Earless having lived in it. 

In 1849, Mr. Landrum attended, as a delegate from 
South Carolina, the meeting of the Southern Baptist 
Convention held at Nashville, Tenn., making the greater 
part, if not the entire, journey on horseback. He spent 
the first night on this journey at the house of Mr. 
Theron Earle, the father of his second wife, and here 
occurred one of those little incidents which illustrates the 
sensitiveness and the deep sympathy of his nature. 
Early in the morning of the next day Mr. Earle 
informed him that his pocket-book was missing, and 
instituted search about the premises and inquiries among 
the servants for the missing treasure. Mr. Landrum 
was exceedingly troubled at the occurrence, and refused 
to proceed on his journey until it was found or satisfac- 
torily accounted for, though Mr. Earle insisted that he 
should not give the matter a thought. He lingered 
until the afternoon of the next day, when Mr. Earle 
remonstrated so strongly against detaining him longer, 
that he mounted his horse and started ; and the pocket- 
book being soon afterward found, so desirous was Mr. 
Earle to appease his anxiety, that he actually sent a man 
after him, who overtook him at Green River and informed 
him of the happy fact. 

On his way through Tennessee he was informed that 
the cholera was raging in Nashville, and that, in conse- 
quence, the delegates from the States would not attend ; 
but he went on and found that the report was unfounded 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC, 157 

or greatly exaggerated. The Convention met^ and 
it is believed that he was the only delegate present from 
South Carolina^ though we cannot assert this positively, 
as we have not had access to the minutes of the meeting. 
While he was in JN'ashville he was the guest of the 
superintendent of the State penitentiary, and had an 
opportunity of inspecting the workings of that institu- 
tion, which was then a novelty to a South Carolinian. 
On his return home he had an opportunity of again 
visiting the old homestead and the scenes of his child- 
hood, and of mingling again with the friends of his 
early youth. His mother had moved to West Tennes- 
see, and, after remaining a short time in his old neigh- 
borhood, he directed his course to that part of the State 
in which she resided to pay her another filial duty, and 
to receive again a mother's loving embrace and a 
mother's priceless blessing. He remained, however, in 
the old neighborhood long enough to have his father's 
grave marked with tombstones, and the spot enclosed 
with a balustrade of heart cedar. This balustrade was 
in a good state of preservation in 1882, thirty-three 
years after its erection. 

After remaining a few weeks with his mother, he bade 
her farewell for the last time, and began the journey 
homeward, his youngest sister, Mary, returning with 
him to South Carolina. This lady, a year or two after- 
ward, married Thomas Ballenger, and she and her hus- 
band removed to Texas. We are indebted to her for an 
account of an incident which occurred on the homeward 
journey from Tennessee, which we will relate : 



158 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM, 

On the return to South Carolina, the party frequently 
passed through communities in which acquaintances 
resided, but so sensitive was Mr. Landrum in regard 
even to the appearance of reaping any personal advan- 
tage on account of his name or acquaintance, that he 
would often avoid these persons, and on asking for a 
night's entertainment, would always studiously conceal 
his name until he had found whether or not his party 
would be admitted simply on the merit of travelers. 
If not admitted on this ground he would pass on. 

It happened on one occasion that he had considerable 
difficulty in securing entertainment for the night. One 
after another informed him that he did not ^^take in 
travelers,^' until he and his party had ridden for several 
hours in the night. At last he reached the house of a 
Mr. McComico, with whom he had boarded in youth, 
and to whom allusion has already been made. 

Mr. McComico announced, through a servant, that he 
did not '' take in travelers,^' when Mr. Landrum, some- 
what out of patience, replied, ^^ Tell your master that I 
intend to sleep at his gate,'' and immediately began to 
make a show of carrying out the intention. 

The servant soon returned with the answer from his 
master, that if he would go around to the barn, he could 
make himself more comfortable. 

" No," replied Mr. Landrum, '^ I won't do it. Tell 
him I am going to lie right here." 

Mr. McComico, hearing the threat repeated, and think- 
ing, perhaps, that he had an unusual character to deal 
with, went out to the gate and found to his great joy 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 159 

that John Landrum stood before him. We need hardly 
add that the traveler was warmly received and bounti- 
fully entertained. 

Mr. Landrum reached his home some time in Sep- 
tember^ having been gone three or four months. He 
reported that the only fruit he saw while away was on 
Try on Mountain in South Carolina — a fact which, at 
that time, was considered remarkable, but which, we 
suppose, has since been satisfactorily accounted for by 
the discovery of the thermal belt. 

In 1852, there was great political excitement in South 
Carolina, caused by the continued agitation of the slavery 
question by the abolitionists of the North. To such a 
pitch did the excitement rise, that a State Convention 
was called to consider the propriety of severing the 
relations which had hitherto existed between the State 
and the Federal union. 

After he had decided upon his life-work, Mr. Landrum 
had never had any aspirations for political oflSce or honors, 
though he was a warm-hearted patriot and held as a 
part of his religious creed, that every good citizen 
should feel a lively interest in the affairs of his country, 
should support good men for office, and should let his 
voice be heard against demagogism and political cor- 
ruption. 

It is remarkable that in times of revolution and 
upheaval in affairs of Government, old political leaders 
usually go down, and new men rise to the surface ; and 
that in times of dread and alarm the people generally 
turn their eyes toward men who have never figured in 



160 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

politics and have never aspired to be leaders of parties. 
It was so in the case just mentioned, and Mr. Landrum 
was called by the united voice of the people of Spartan- 
burg county to represent them in the Convention. He 
yielded to their wishes, and he, with Dr. J. J. Vernon, 
Col. R. C. Poole and two others whose names we have 
not been able to learn, were members of the State Con- 
vention that assembled in Columbia in 1852. Mr. Lan- 
drum was an ardent admirer of Calhoun, and believed 
with him in the doctrine of State Sovereignty, and 
deprecated heartily all interference on the part of the 
general government with our State institutions, but in 
concert with a majority of the Convention, he thought 
that the time had not yet come for the State to secede 
from the Union ; and so, secession was delayed eight 
years longer. 

It may be remarked here that Mr. Landrum was also 
a member of the convention of 1860, which passed the 
ordinance of secession. That convention, too, was 
largely composed of religious men and quiet citizens of 
known integrity, who had never figured in politics. 
Landrum voted for the ordinance because he was a 
patriot, and because he, in common with the best men of 
the country, thought it was right, and demanded by every 
consideration of self-respect, justice and honor. The 
results failed to vindicate the wisdom of the policy, 
but all the bloodshed and disaster which followed did 
not tarnish the honor nor impugn the motives of the 
men who adopted it. 

Some time between the years 1850 and 1860, the 



VISIT TO TENNESSEE, ETC. 161 

Baptists of North Carolina, just beyond the mountains, 
with whom the associations of upper South Carolina had 
long held friendly and fraternal intercourse, became 
violently agitated on questions of doctrine, and for 
several years there was a standing feud between parties, 
each of which claimed to hold the true faith. We do 
not know the precise nature of the questions in dispute, 
but think that the disturbance was due to the promulga- 
tion of the Free Will doctrine by a few zealots of the 
Guthrie stamp, who succeeded in accomplishing on a 
much larger scale what Guthrie had accomplished at 
Boiling Spring. A considerable number of the churches 
composing the French Broad Association withdrew from 
that body, and formed themselves into a separate asso- 
ciation called the Big Joy. The Salem Association also 
broke up into two separate bodies, the seceding one 
styling itself the Union Association. But, in the course 
of a few years, the Free Will agitators began to lose 
ground; many of them fell into disrepute, and the 
churches that had been led astray by them on sober, 
second thought, became ashamed of themselves and their 
leaders, and began to long to return to the native fold. 
It was proposed and agreed to, to submit the points in 
dispute to a board of prominent ministers and theo- 
logians, to be selected from surrounding associations. 
The Tyger River Association, of South Carolina, sent 
Rev. John G. Landrum and Dr. Jas. C. Furman, and 
the Broad River, Rev. M. C. Barnett and Rev. Wade 
Hill, to meet those selected from North Carolina, in 
Hendersonville, N. C. The ministers named all attended, 

11 



162 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDEUM. 

and labored earnestly to bring about a reconciliation. 
The plan tliey proposed and submitted to the churches 
was ratified immediately by many of them, and, in a 
few years, all the bolting churches came back to the 
original fold. Since that time the doctrine of the Free 
Wills has never been a disturbing element among the 
Baptist churches composing the Associations above 
named. This account of the trouble among the North 
Carolina churches, and of the manner of its adjustment, 
is given on the authority of Rev. James Blythe, of 
Saluda, N. C. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CALLED TO BETHEL CHUECH HISTORY — PREACHES 

AGAIN TO BOILING SPRING CHURCH — ^SPEECH AT 
COWPENS — DEATH OF MRS. LANDRUM. 

TN 1854, Mr. Landrum was prevailed upon to assume 

-■- the pastoral care of the Bethel church, located at 

Woodruff, S. C. He had received a call to this church 

as early as 1835, but had declined to accept it. 

Bethel is one of the oldest and largest Baptist churches 

in the country. It is probable that it gave its name 

to the Bethel Association, as it was a member of that 

body until 1836, and M. C. Barnett, in his history of 

the Broad River Association, says that the Bethel 

Association was constituted and held twenty -three of its 

annual meetings with this church in succession. In 

1839, it entertained the Baptist State Convention, and it 

has been the place of meeting four times for the Tyger 

River and the Spartanburg Associations. If Mr. 

Barnett's information was correct, it has a record for 

hospitality to religious bodies far surpassing that of any 

other church, either in town or country, of which we 

have any knowledge. The church is located at one of 

those natural centres of population which from the 

earliest times seemed to attract the best of» human 

society. It is on the summit of the elevated ridge which 

163 



164 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

divides the waters of the Enoree and the Tyger^ and is 
approached by fine^ natural roads from at least six 
different directions. One of these roads is the famous 
Buncomb road^ the finest natural road^ perhaps^ in the 
State. From Musgrove's to a point near Hodges, at the 
foot of the Blue Eidge mountains, a distance of sixty 
odd miles, it follows the crest of a ridge which is crossed 
by neither hills nor streams. The thriving little town of 
Woodruff has of late years sprung up around the Bethel 
church, and the early completion of the Spartanburg and 
Greenwood Railroad promises to make it one of the most 
attractive places in the State. 

A very interesting history of this church was written 
two years aw by Hon. A. B. Woodruff, who has been 
the clerk of the church for thirty-two years, and deacon 
for twenty-eight years. His history is published in the 
minutes of the Spartanburg Association for 1882, from 
which we extract and condense nearly all of the facts 
that we relate. 

'' The early history of Bethel church is enveloped in 
clouds and uncertainty. No record is on hand that 
gives any intimation as to the organization of the church, 
or the time when it was constituted. Nor are we able to 
obtain, from any living source, information giving any 
light on this part of the subject. The first record we find 
reads as follows: ^September 16th, 1787, the Church 
of Christ on Jamey^s Creek — members received for 
baptism.^ The first name on the list of members is, 
^Joseph Woodruff, ordained deacon.^ The first record 
for the transaction of business/is as follows : ' February 



HISTORY. 165 



7th, 1789, being church conference, William Moore called 
to account for disorderly walk, and found guilty, and is 
under the church's censure/ ^ * * 

^^I think it possible, that on the 16th of September, 
1787, the congregation assumed the character of a Baptist 
church, as the list of members begins with Nos. 1, 2, 3, 
etc., on that date; and yet there is strong probability 
that it was known as a place of preaching and religious 
exercises for years ; perhaps many years previous to the 
above date. My father, the late Thomas Woodruff, who 
was quite an old man at the time of his death, has 
frequently told me that his understanding was, that this 
was first an arm of the Durban's Creek church, and 
that they worshiped as such for many years. Adopting 
this theory, which is the best we have, we are brought 
to the conclusion that religious exercises were held as 
above stated, until it gradually grew into a church, 
assuming its work and responsibility without any formal 
constitution. The first religious exercises were probably 
held in a small log house, situated just below^ the old 
grave-yard, on the path leading to the spring. This 
building was also used as a school house, and the school 
was taught by an old man familiarly known as ^ Master 
Lindsey.' The next house was also built of logs, and 
was situated in the lower part of what is now the old 
grave-yard. When these houses were built, or whether 
they were ever formally dedicated to the service of 
Almighty God, will never be know^n. - This second 
house gave place to the third — a building of more ex- 
tended and imposing dimensions — about the year 1803. 



166 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDEUM. 

In the back of one of the old books is this entry : ^ The 
old meeting-house sold the 13th day of October, 1803, to 
William Hendrix. The meeting-house to be delivered 
the Thursday after our next Bethel Association/ 

^^ This last-named house was a long, low-framed build- 
ing, never ceiled, and with a gallery across each end. 
The pulpit was situated in the centre of one side. It 
was a high, square-shaped box with steps running up at 
one end, and closed with a door. The book board was 
so high that a minister of small stature might find some 
difficulty in making himself seen over it. One can 
imagine how, upon a warm summer day, about three or 
four preachers could enjoy themselves sitting upon a 
bench nailed to the wall, with the door buttoned tight, 
which was rarely neglected, cooped up in this box, and 
with no ventilation, except a small window in their rear, 
about as high as their heads. This pulpit, which is now 
over eighty years old, and from which has so often 
flowed out the everlasting gospel — sometimes in thunder 
tones as from Mount Sinai ; sometimes in streams of 
living light, and sometimes as the soft dew upon 
Hermon, or the sweet droppings of the honey-comb— is 
now in a state of first-rate preservation, in the possession 
of Mr. E. F. Davis, a citizen near by, and is used by 
him for a wheat box. 

^^ The house, of which I have just made mention, was 
for its time a goodly one, was beautifully situated in a 
grove of large spreading oaks, and near to the corner of 
the same old grave-yard. Many very precious memories 
gather around this sacred spot, some of pleasure, some 



HISTORY. 167 



of pain, but all combining to fix it in the affections of 
those who are still permitted to call them up. Samuel 
Woodruff, an old and venerated member of the church 
of this period, when upon his death-bed, requested that 
he might be buried as near to the meeting-house as 
possible. His request was carried out, and a spot was 
selected for his grave just outside the corner of the grave- 
yard and within a few feet of the church door. There 
he and his wife are sleeping side by side, near the place 
that was so dear to them in life. 

" The house now occupied by the church was built in 
the year 1849. It is a spacious building, and will com- 
fortably seat the very large congregation that meets there 
to worship. It contains a substantial baptistry, dressing 
rooms, vestibule, etc., which make it altogether very 
comfortable and convenient. 

" The cemetery, which occupies a part of the church 
land, would probably run back cotemporaneously with 
the church. The oldest inscription we find is that of 
Mrs. Anney Alexander, who emigrated w^ith her hus- 
band from Ireland in the year 1778, and died in the 
year 1796. The next we find is that of William Moore, 
who died in 1798. There had evidently been burials 
many years before those mentioned, but the graves are 
not marked by inscriptions. A traditionary statement, 
which I had from my father, was, that the first burial 
at this place was that of a man killed in a horse race not 
far from the church. 

" There seem to have been several changes of the name 
since the first organization of the church ; in fact, there 



168 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDEUM. 

appears about as much confusion in connection with the 
name as with the origin of the church. On the fly leaf 
of one of the very old looking record books^ half printed 
and half written in a very bold hand^ is this inscription: 
^ Fund Book for the Bethel Church, Jamey's Creek, 
Woodruff^s Meeting House/ This was in the year 
1800. * * * 

"The first record that gives us any information in 
regard to the men who proclaimed the Word of Life to 
the people at this place, is the following : ' July 20th, 
1789. The voice of the Church as a call to Brother 
Shackleford to take the pastoral care of her.^ From 
this time till May 4th, 1816, it would seem that Brother 
Richard Shackleford was in charge of the church, as no 
change is indicated by any record to be found. During 
the term of his ministry, there appear to have been 
added about three hundred and sixty-five members to 
the church. About the year 1802, a most remarkable 
revival occurred within the bounds of the church. 
Thomas Woodruif, then a young man, was teaching 
school in the neighborhood near where Dr. M. W. 
Drummond now lives. Upon one occasion he observed 
that a little girl named Rhoda Bragg was absent from 
her seat longer than usual, and, becoming uneasy about 
her, he Avent in search of her and found her down on 
her knees by a tree praying. He approached her w^ith- 
out being observed, and to his astonishment heard his 
own name mentioned in her prayer. He became excited 
himself. The other children at the house, becoming 
alarmed at their absence, followed on and gathered 



HISTORY, 169 



around them. The teacher immediately sent ofF for 
Rev. George Brewton, a most excellent citizen and min- 
ister of the neighborhood^ who came and commenced a 
meeting. The neighbors gathered in and erected a 
shelter and joined in the meeting, which went on for 
days, and resulted in the conversion of very many souls. 
The records show that about that time there w^ere one 
hundred and eighty-eight members added to the church 
by baptism. 

^^On the 14th of January, 1806, we find that Daniel 
ToUeson was received by letter. Opposite his name is 
a marginal note which simply says, ^Subsequently 
ordained to the ministry.^ What became of him is not 
stated, except that he was dismissed by letter. I have 
often heard it said that he was the only member that the 
church ever ordained to the ministry, that he turned out 
badly and the church w^as careful not to ordain any 
other. During this period, and still later, w^e find many 
cases of discipline that are quite interesting. One 
brother is excluded for ^disjDuting the veracity of the 
Scriptures, speaking evil of rulers, and despising gov- 
ernment, drunkenness, speaking great swelling words of 
vanity.^ Many of them were hunted up by committees 
for being absent from church meetings. Some were ex- 
cluded for removing out of the bounds of the church 
without applying for letters of dismission, and some were 
made to account for leaving church conferences without 
permission. And, what is strange, when^ we consider the 
puritanical habits of these dear, good people of the olden 
times, they very often appointed females on their com- 



170 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANBRUM, 

mittees, and required them to look up and investigate 
matters of dealings, grievances as they were called. It 
may also be inferred that at least some of the members 
loved to talk, or were hard to control. On one occasion 
a motion was offered to adopt a rule to prohibit members 
from speaking more than twice on the same subject 
during conference. The discussion of this motion was 
continued for four consecutive meetings, and then ^ dis- 
missed/ as the record has it. Sometimes offending 
members were held ^in suspense^ for awhile and then 
restored to fellowship. What this condition of suspense 
was, is hard now to realize. I suppose it was a kind of 
semi out-and-in condition, in which the offender was per- 
mitted to feel that he was not exactly right nor totally 
wrong.^^ 

We wish that our space would permit us to copy 
literally the whole of the excellent history from which 
the foregoing extracts have been taken. But we must 
condense the facts and give only an outline of many 
things which we might wish to state at length. 

The great revival which began at Brushy Creek in 
1831, was not long in reaching Bethel. Uncle Tommy 
Ray was the pastor, and conducted a series of meetings 
in which he was assisted by Rev. Thomas Greer, who 
came with him from Padgett's Creek. During these 
meetings one hundred and seventy-five members were 
added to the church by baptism. A large proportion of 
these were genuine converts — persons whose lives and 
deaths demonstrated the power of the Christian religion 
over the human heart. But this great revival was 



HISTORY. 171 

quickly followed by. a terrible convulsion, which shook 
the church to its centre, and threatened for a time its 
very existence. 

We quote again from A. B. Woodruff^s History : 
"About the latter part of 1832, South Carolina took ex- 
ceptions to some of the Federal legislation, known as the 
^ Tariff Act,^ and called a convention of her people to 
consider the propriety of resisting the said ' Tariff Act/ 
The party favoring this step were called nuUifiers. With 
this party Rev. Thomas Ray had identified himself, and 
being a man of fine sense as well as a large property 
owner, he was elected to the convention and thus became 
connected very closely with the Nullification move- 
ment. This gave offence to some of his friends at 
Bethel, and the trouble began. Under the great outside 
pressure, it grew until the church was torn into two 
distinct factions, known at that time as the minority and 
the majority. Hard sayings were indulged, bitter feel- 
ings ensued, and the future of the church was exceedingly 
dark. The matter went up to the Bethel Association, 
and in December, 1833, a committee from the Asso- 
ciation visited the church with a view to an adjustment 
of the difficulty, but without success. In October, 
1834, the church received a resolution from the 
Association advising them to appoint a day of fast- 
ing and prayer, and to invite ministers and brethren 
to attend with them to aid in the settlement of their 
trouble. This proposition was accepteel by the church, 
and on the 28th of November, 1834, the church, 
with various ministers and brethren, met and observed 



172 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANBRUM. 

the day as contemplated. It is said to have been one of 
the most solemn and impressive occasions ever known in 
the history of the church. Tlie very atmosphere seemed 
to be filled with the mighty inspirations of the day. 
And just at the right time, too, as if guided by Divine 
Providence, Revs. Josiah Furman and Jonathan Davis 
made their appearance. They came in the fullness of the 
blessed gospel, talked to the church in the wisest, most 
affectionate manner, and advised them, as the record has 
it, ' to lay aside all party spirit and hardness, to forgive 
one another and unite as a band of Christians in the 
spirit of meekness,^ which w^as cordially accepted by the 
church. The members then withdrew from the house 
and formed a line in the yard in front of the church, 
and, as some as the songs of Zion were being sung, they 
passed up and down, and gave to each other the right 
hand of Christian fellow^ship. Husbands, wdves, chil- 
dren, parents, all joined in this expression of mutual 
forbearance and mutual love, w^hich, as the record again 
has it, ^ was a time of general joy.^ This was the settle- 
ment of the mighty difficulty, but as the ocean, after 
having been sw^pt by a great storm, continues to lash 
and foam and fret long after the storm has died away, so 
the angry passions that had been raised in this tumult- 
uous strife, yielded slowly but steadily to the pressure 
of the brotherly love w^hich was re-occupying the hearts 
of those Christians. Satan was vanquished, but lie 
retired muttering and sullen, from a position he had 
once thought impregnable. A resolution was imme- 
diately adopted by the church, regretting the painful 



HISTORY. 173 



diflferences that had existed between themselves and 
Brother Ray, and giving him assurances of Christian 
fellowship and a cordial invitation to visit them as a 
minister and brother/^ 

In March, 1834, previous to the settlement of the 
above-mentioned difficulty, Rev. William Rhodes was 
called to supply the church ^^ until the next meeting of 
the Association/^ Then an effort w^as made to procure 
Rev. John G. Landrum^ but he declined to come, and in 
September, 1835, Benjamin Hicks was chosen as the 
supply of the church, and he served in that capacity for 
one year. He is represented as having been a man of 
fine, portly appearance, of pleasant manners, and a warm- 
hearted, earnest preacher. At one time when he was 
very sick, and thought he would never recover, he 
composed the hymn — the first tw^o lines of which are : 

" The time is swiftly rolling on 
When I must faint and die." 

The hymn was set to music by William AValker, and 
is to be found in his " Southern Harmony.^^ 

Samuel Gibson supplied the church in 1836, and in 
1838, Thomas Ray came back in answ^er to a call 
previously made. A. B. Woodruff says : '' His return 
gave general satisfaction. ISo man had ever found a 
warmer place in the hearts of the members of Bethel 
church than he had. This. he had realized, and he came 
with his own heart overflowing with feelings of gratitude 
for this long desired re-union, and the brighter prospects 
of the future before them. He continued in charge of 



174 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

the church, until, pressed by the weight of years, he 
sought repose in the retirement of home/^ 

It has been already stated that the church has always 
exercised its right to ordain members to the ministry 
with great caution. Indeed, we believe that Bethel 
church, after having ordained Tolleson in 1806, never 
ordained another until 1883, when it ordained H, K. 
Ezell ; though during that period, frequent licenses were 
granted, and many of its members took letters of 
dismission, and were ordained by other churches. We 
read that at one time a special meeting of the church 
was held, in order to consider the '' gifts ^^ of aspirants 
to the ministry, and that one brother^s " gift in doctrine 
was deemed unprofitable^^; another was found to possess 
the "gift^^ only of ^^ singing, exhortation and prayer,^^ 
and he was granted permission to use it when and where 
he might feel the impression ; another still, was allowed 
to use his '' gift ^^ within the bounds of the church. 

We believe that as many as twelve preachers have been 
members of this church, nearly all of whom were converted 
under its ministrations, and began to exercise their " gifts ^^ 
within its bounds. Among these may be mentioned James 
Allen, William Rhodes, Warren Drummond, Simpson 
Drummond, James Woodruff and Richard Woodruff. 
Of all the preachers that the church has sent forth, we be- 
lieve Warrren Drummond was the only one that was ever 
called to the pastoral care of the church. This was done 
in 1868, and he supplied the church for three years, at 
the expiration of which, on account of advancing age 
and failing bodily strength, he resigned, and sought the 



HISTORY, 175 



retirement of his home. He died two years afterward, 
on the 5th of October, 1873, at a good old age, and in 
the full triumph of the Christian faith. " He was an 
independent thinker and preacher — formed his own 
conclusions, and preached independently w^hat he be- 
lieved to be the truth. He was successful as a revival 
preacher, warming up very often to a height of impas- 
sioned eloquence, that would captivate and sway a crowd 
as some mighty influence.^^ Simpson Drummond and 
Richard Woodruff are still living, and their membership 
is still with the old church. The former '' is modest, 
and retiring almost to a fault, but delights to hold up 
the banner of the Cross, and enlist soldiers for Jesus. 
He merits and enjoys fully the confidence of his brethren, 
and sustains a most excellent Christian character.'^ The 
latter " retains many of the peculiarities of an eventful 
ministerial life, and still loves to talk of a Saviour^s dying 
love, and to persuade sinners to repent.^^ He is a man 
of warm heart and deep, earnest piety, and, but for consti- 
tutional eccentricities of disposition, would have been a 
widely useful man. 

The church has been supplied from time to time with 
preaching of a high order, and has enjoyed the ministra- 
tions of an unusual number of able men. Revs. Samuel 
Gibson, Drury Scruggs, John G. Landrum, Tolaver 
Robertson, James C. Furman, John A. Broadus, M. C. 
Barnett and L. C. Ezell have all successively occupied 
its pulpit and instructed it in the way of life. Drury 
Scruggs' ministrations extended through a period of 
nine years. He was considered by many an able and 



176 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANBRUM. 

acceptable minister. He removed to Tennessee, where, 
we are told, he continues to preach, though he is now old 
and infirm. During his pastorate at Bethel, he resided 
in the north-eastern part of the county, not a great way 
from the Cowpens battle-ground, at least forty miles 
from his charge. Some of the visible fruits of his 
labors were the addition of one hundred and twenty- 
two members to the church. 

When John G. Landrum assumed pastoral charge of 
the church in 1854, the congregation was perhaps the 
largest that assembled at any place in the county, and, 
in intelligence and refinement, it would have compared 
favorably with any congregation in the State. The 
present large and commodious house of worship had 
been completed, and, without the committee rooms and 
vestibule that now diminish its seating capacity, it was 
capable of seating a larger audience than any other 
church building within our knowledge. Yet on the 
second Sunday in every month it was crowded to its 
utmost capacity, and the preacher who stood in the 
pulpit was made aware of the fact that he stood face to 
face with the intelligence, wealth, chivalry and beauty of 
the land, and, also, with the enemy of souls moving in 
high life, and imparting to his wiles the gloss of respecta- 
bility and refinement. 

For six years Landrum met the vast audience monthly, 
and held it and swayed it as perhaps no other man 
at that time could have done. He was now in the prime 
of life and his preaching powers had probably reached 
their climax. During his connection with the church 



HISTORY. 177 



one hundred and seven members were added by baptism, 
and the church was greatly revived and strengthened. 

From 1860 to 1866, including the whole period of 
the Confederate War, Rev. Tolaver Robertson, of Lau- 
rens county, was the supply. He was a man universally 
beloved, a great revivalist, and, during his ministry of 
about forty years, he baptized more people than any man 
that ever lived in Laurens county. He died a few 
years ago in the full assurance of a blessed immortality. 
We have been told that the Reedy River Association has 
taken steps toward erecting a monument at Warrior 
Creek church, in Laurens county, to the memory of him 
and of Rev. Silas Knight, two of the honored fathers of 
that Association. 

During the ministry of Tolaver Robertson at Bethel, 
the church resolved to have preaching twice a month, 
and Dr. John A. Broadus was the first pastor after the 
adoption of this resolution. His term of service 
extended from January 13th, 1866, to June, 1868, when, 
from failing health and the demands of the Board of 
Trustees of the Theological Seminary, he offered his 
resignation, which was accepted with sincere regret. He 
was succeeded by Rev. Warren Drummond, whose 
pastorate has already been mentioned, and he, in turn, 
was succeeded by Rev. M. C. Barnett, who died during 
the first year of his pastorate, 1872. 

In January, 1873, Rev. Landrum C. Ezell, under 
arrangements previously made, entered upon the work of 
pastor, and has continued in charge until the present 
time. He preaches twice a month to large congrega- 

12 



178 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDEUM. 

tions, and enjoys very largely the confidence and love 
of his flock. ^^He is an intelligent worker^ a sound 
theologian, and zealous in his high calling/^ He 
belongs by birth and marriage emphatically to preaching 
families. He is the son of Rev. John S. Ezell, who, 
without any early advantages, by native force of mind 
and heart, came to be a preacher of unusual intelligence 
and power. H. K. Ezell, his youngest son, has recently 
been ordained, and is following in the footsteps of his 
father and eldest brother, giving the promise of much 
usefulness in the cause of the Master. As it has been 
frequently necessary to mention the name of the 
lamented M. C. Barnett, in the progress of these pages, 
it may be well to say here that he was one of the most 
remarkable preachers of the State. His memory was 
simply wonderful — wide in its grasp and tenacious even 
to the most minute particular in its hold. He was 
literally full of Scriptural quotations and knew just how 
to use them with most powerful effect. He was fond of 
literature and loved study for its own sake. He was, 
moreover, a natural orator, deep in thought and rapid in 
utterance, and there was a fascination about him in the 
pulpit which at once arrested all eyes and reached all 
hearts. He was a firm believer in the doctrine of elec- 
tion through grace, and he preached it to the end of his 
days with a loftiness of thought and charm of language 
that were the admiration of all who heard him. He 
was no revivalist, no exhorter, and hardly ever attempted 
to take the lead in a protracted meeting. He preached the 
gospel truth as he understood it in the most pointed and 



HISTOBT. 179 

eloquent language that he could command, and then took 
his seat, having said more in thirty minutes than most 
men can say in an hour. The writer of these memoirs 
well remembers how his boyish ideal of the orator was 
realized in Barnett, and how his boyish heart swelled 
with admiration at the sound of some of his lofty, 
rolling sentences ; as when once speaking of the prayer 
of a certain woman, which was answered by our Saviour, 
he said: ^^She laid hold of the key that unlocks 
heaven, and moved the mind that moves all things/' 
Nothing that the boy had ever heard had so impressed 
him with the reality and grandeur of prayer as did 
that one sentence. 

Barnett died early, when at the zenith of his power 
and usefulness, and the churches mourned for him as for 
^^a prince, and a great man in Israel.^^ He never 
belonged to the Tyger River Association, but he was 
known and loved in all the Baptist churches of the 
country. He and Landrum were life-long friends, and 
their relations to each other were of the most intimate 
and endearing kind. Barnett took Landrum\s place at 
Mount Zion for several years, and also at Bethlehem, in 
order to give the latter the opportunity of responding to 
some of the many calls that were coming to him from 
other churches. While filling the pulpit at Mount 
Zion, Landrum's home was his home, and the intimate 
associations there with the family but endeared and 
strengthened the ties that had already bound them 
together. 

The church at Bethel, in the progress of its history, 



180 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G, LANDRUM. 

has had an unusual number of legacies bequeathed it. 
Again and again have the thoughts of the dying saints 
turned fondly to the dear old church, and again and 
again have they left it substantial bequests in their wills. 

As early as the year 1828, Rev. Spencer Bobo, a 
minister of the community died, bequeathing to the 
church a sum of money, to be used for charitable and 
benevolent purposes; but not until June, 1838, was the 
amount paid over by the executors of his will. The 
principal and interest then amounted to four hundred 
and twelve dollars. 

Again in 1853, Mrs. Hannah Pilgram, on her death- 
bed, requested that five hundred dollars be given out of 
her estate to the church, the interest of which should be 
used for charitable purposes. The money was afterward 
paid into the church treasury by her son, Samuel Pil- 
gram. 

In 1859, the executors of Robert Alexander paid over 
to the church one hundred dollars, in accordance with 
the provisions of his last will and testament. 

In 1868, on the death of Thomas WoodruiT, one of 
the oldest members of the church, it was found that by 
the provisions of a will previously executed, the sum of 
five hundred dollars had been bequeathed by him to the 
church. Only a part of this last bequest Avas collected. 

All these legacies, except the last, were swept away by 
-the war, and up to 'the beginning of the war they had 
been more a source of wrangling and dissatisfaction than 
of 'real good. While they gave evidences of an affection 
for the church which was gratifying to the living, it 



HISTORY. 181 

would have been fer better if the testators themselves 
had applied the money before death. 

As regards the lay membership of Bethel church, we 
can say only a few words. Throughout the churches 
history, it has been composed largely of men of means, 
of social position, and of sterling integrity. Among 
those of the olden time we mention Joseph Woodruff 
and Robert Page, the first deacons; Broadrick Mason 
and Lewis Lanford, also deacons from the year 1819 ; 
Philip Brewton, elected clerk in 1824 and served thirty 
years ; James Page and Caleb Allen, deacons ; and at a 
later date, William Clayton and Zachariah Lanford ; then 
there were such members as Philip Pilgram, Isaac Wood- 
ruff, Jonas Brewton, Sr., Benjamin Griffith, Thomas 
Woodruff, Ephraim Drummond, William Jones, Simeon 
Brewton, Jonas Brewton, Jr., Chaney Lanford, Sterling 
Willis, John Leatherwood, Harrison P. Woodruff, Jared 
Drummond, and Harrison Drummond, all of whom '' in 
their moral worth and Christian character constituted a 
tower of strength and support seldom found in any one 
church.^^ 

Volumes might be written about these men, but we 
must be content to mention only their names. They have 
all gone to their final reward, and their works will follow 
them both in this world and in that to come. Many 
of them are still represented in the church and country 
by descendants who have proved themselves worthy of 
the names and characters of their ancestors. Among 
the living, we may mention John S. Rogers, Ephraim 
Drummond, Jr., James and Jesse Leatherwood, James 



182 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G, LANDBUM. 

Carnel, S. S. Eobuck, Dr. C. P. Woodruff; Richard 
Woodruff; Simpson Drummond^ and John S. Todd, — 
another " tower of strength and support ^^ not unworthy 
of the first. 

Up to 1882, the church had had thirteen hundred and 
sixty members upon its rolls. The present officers are 
John S. Rogers, A. B. Woodruff, H. E. Drummond, M. 
W. Drummond, Washington Lanford, Seaborn S. Drum- 
mond, deacons; A. B. Woodruff, clerk; John W. 
Martin, treasurer. 

A. B. Woodruff* has been clerk of the church for 
thirty-two years. He was also clerk of the Tyger River 
Association for a number of years, as has already been 
stated, and is now the clerk of the Spartanburg Associa- 
tion and assistant clerk of the Baptist State Convention. 
He has represented Spartanburg twice in the State Leg- 
islature, is one of the directors of the Spartanburg, 
Laurens, and Greenwood railroad, one of the trustees 
of Cooper-Limestone Institute, was, till quite recently, 
one of the trustees of Furman Univesity, is a mem- 
ber of the executive board of the Spartanburg Asso- 
ciation, is superintendent of a large Sunday-school in 
his church, leader of church music, and is, moreover, 
trial justice and postmaster of the town of Woodruff*. 
We believe that he is also secretary of the State Sunday- 
School Convention. In short, wherever in our county 
and State, there is good to be done and sacrifices of time 
and money to be made for the cause of Jesus Christ, 
there we may expect to find A. B. Woodruff. Quiet, 
self-sacrificing, patient, hopeful, earnest, he toils on, sus- 



HISTORY, 183 



tained by a lofty faith and cheered by the approval of 
an enlightened conscience. 

The name also of Col. E. S. Allen is worthy of 
honorable mention in this connection. He, too, has 
twice represented his county in the State Legislature. 
He was treasurer of the Tyger River Association, and 
has held that office of trust in the Spartanburg Associa- 
tion from its organization to the present time. He is 
devoted to Sunday-school work; having instructed a 
class of young men in the Sunday-school for a number 
of years. He is an active worker in his church ; a man 
of fine business attainments, benevolent and liberal, and 
is known and honored far and wide. 

Then there is H. E. Drummond, the faithful deacon, 
the son of an honored sire; modest, active, liberal, 
sensible; devoted to the interests of his church, and 
prominent in its councils and all its operations. But 
time and space forbid to say more. Bethel church was 
worthy of the six golden years that Landrum gave to 
it out of his busy life, and he w^as worthy of all the 
affection and reverence with which the church regarded 
him. 

We have lingered long at Bethel, perhaps too long ; 
and yet we would love to linger still. Our dead treas- 
ures lie there in the grave-yard, and we trust that our 
own bones will rest by their side. Many living mem- 
ories, too, cluster around the dear old place; — hallowed 
associations with the living, and sweet reminiscences of 
the dead. The reader will call up memories of other 
places dear to his own heart, and he will pardon the 



184 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

weakness, if weakness it is, which causes another to 
linger near a place that is consecrated by a thousand 
sacred recollections, and to which he is bound by a 
thousand sacred ties. 

If any one period of John G. Landrum's life, more 
than another, was characterized by unceasing activity 
and arduous toil, it was that extending from 1854 to 
1861. He had prevailed upon the Bethlehem church to 
release him as the supply, in order that he might accept 
the call to Bethel, but he still preached regularly to four 
churches, and in addition supplied at least two more by 
weekly appointments. One of these churches was the 
Boiling Springs, to which he gave one day in the month, 
and every fifth Sunday. It will be remembered, too, 
that during the period named, he was giving two 
Sundays in the month, and one Tuesday night to the 
Spartanburg church. He also superintended the build- 
ing of the new house of worship at Spartanburg, and 
with no help from abroad, raised principally by his 
individual efforts the neat sum of ten thousand dollars 
for that purpose. The building was completed in 1856, 
and the dedication sermon was preached by Dr. Thomas 
Curtis. 

In 1857, the Baptists of South Carolina were called 
upon to raise one hundred thousand dollars, as their 
quota of the half a million, with which it was proposed 
to endow the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at 
Greenville. Landrum entered warmly and heartily into 
this movement; talked and worked for it both privately 
and publicly, and by his efforts and personal influence, 



HISTORY. 185 



contributed in no small measure to its success. He was, 
during several of these years, vice president of the State 
Baptist Convention ; Judge O'Neall being president. 
In the midst of his varied and pressing religious duties, 
he never neglected his duties as a citizen, but always 
took the warmest interest in public affairs, and scruti- 
nized closely the political problems of the day. About 
this time of his life he served for several years as treas- 
urer of the Board of Commissioners of the Poor, of 
Spartanburg county, without pay or emolument of any 
kind, and performed all the duties pertaining to the 
position with cheerfulness and exactness; though the 
greater part of the work was little less than thankless 
drudgery. 

In 1856, the first monument was erected on Cowpens 
Battle Ground, in the eastern part of Spartanburg 
county, by the Washington Light Infantry, a famous 
military company of Charleston, S. C. The company 
marched through the country with their baggage train 
and camp equipage, and pitched their camp on the far- 
famed field. There was a vast concourse of people 
present to witness the erection, and the ceremonies of 
dedication were of the most imposing kind. Rev. John 
G. Landrum had previously been selected as the orator 
of the day, on account of his having been recommended 
to the company as being the most thoroughly conversant 
with the country^s history that could anywhere be 
found. We have often heard the speech made on this 
occasion complimented as one replete with information, 
pathos and power. There is good authority for stating 



186 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G, LANDRUM. 

that Dr. Thomas Curtis^ who heard both, pronounced 
it superior to Preston's great oration at King's Moun- 
tain. If the speech was a written one, the manuscript 
has been destroyed, or at least it is not to be found 
among Mr. Landrum's papers. It is quite probable 
that he spoke from notes, and the notes were afterward 
thrown away. 

There are doubtless many still living who remember 
the occasion and the address, but the only account of 
both that we have before us, is one given by the Spar- 
tanburg Express, in its issue of May 1st, 1856. A few 
extracts from that account may be of interest to the 
reader. After describing some preliminary details, the 
writer says : 

^^The work being completed, the company changed 
their fatigue dress for their full dress uniform, and 
formed in a double column around the monument, to 
consecrate it to its sacred purposes. 

" The Rev. Dr. Gilman, the chaplain of the company, 
made a few remarks alike appropriate to the patriotic as 
well as the sacred solemnities in which the assemblage 
was about to engage. He then read a portion of the 
twenty-first chapter of Deuteronomy, and offered up a 
most fervid prayer. 

'' Hon. W. D. Porter, State Senator from Charleston, 
and former captain of Washington Light Infantry, who 
had accompanied them as a guest, was called for, and 
made a beautiful ex tempore speech. 

^^Rev. J. G. Landrum was then called out, and gave 
us a fine speech, in which he exhibited a store of infor- 



HISTORY. 187 



mation that he had gathered up from different sources, 
that would be interesting and vahiable to the public. 
He defended the militia from the slur that some are 
disposed to cast upon their conduct at the battle of 
Cowpens. He spoke, at length, on the defeat of Gates 
at Camden, and of the gloom which overspread the land 
in consequence of that disaster, and of how the English 
commander wrote home to say that South Carolina was 
again a British province. Then Greene took command. 
Before this, however, there had been several encounters, 
and among them King^s Mountain and Blackstock's. 
Greene therefore thought if he had any friends they 
were in the up country. He sent Morgan up the Broad 
river, with directions to take the road leading toward 
Ninety Six. He stopped at GrindalFs, and gave out 
that he was there for recruits from the whigs and the 
friends of the cause of liberty. Here he received 
information to the effect that Col. Tarleton was some six 
or seven miles on the other side of the river in Chester 
district, and was evidently intending to cross the river 
above him, and cut off his retreat. Morgan, therefore, 
on the 16th of January, 1781, left GrindalPs and came 
up and camped on this spot, about sundown. He 
perhaps intended to cross the river and go into North 
Carolina, but his scouts came in and informed him 
that Tarleton was upon his rear. He then determined 
here to give him battle on the following morning, 
and here on the following day was fought the battle 
in commemoration of which this monument has been 
erected. 



188 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDEUM, 

" Mr. Landrum said it was difficult now to detail all 
the positions occupied by different portions of the army, 
but he thought those given by Dr. Johnson in his recent 
pamphlet substantially correct. As to the ravine^ there 
is no doubt but that it lies on the confines of the muster- 
ground. Though seventy-five years had worked great 
changes^ and the ravine was filled up and the road 
obliterated^ we are now on the spot where the front line 
was engaged. Notwithstanding the night before the 
battle was bitterly cold, Morgan was up all night, the 
greater part of the time encouraging the men, preparing 
them for the morrow, and charging them to stand firm, 
and not to retire until they had fired at least three 
rounds. A great deal has been said about the conduct of 
the militia on the occasion, but the fact is, they gave 
way, because it was intended that they should give way. 
They behaved bravely and nobly, and when, in after 
years, Morgan was defending, in Congress, the militia 
system, he declared that the militia were regulars at 
Cowpens. 

'^ When the order came to Washington to charge, he 
charged with such fury that his men rode straight 
through the British ranks, treading many into the earth 
as they went, then re-formed and charged again from the 
rear. Mr. Young, then a boy of sixteen years of age, 
who was in the charge, says, he changed his tackey for 
the best British horse he ever rode, and made the quickest 
swap he ever made in his life. Just then the Conti- 
nentals became closely engaged, and soon drove the 
British from the field. Morgan rode between them and 



HISTORY, 189 



the militia^ and said; ^Form boys, form ! Old Morgan 
never was beaten in his life ! ^ ^ I need not tell you/ 
said Mr. Landrum, Hhat I was not there. My head is 
gray,'^ but I am not quite old enough to have been there. 
I wish to God I had been there.^ 

^^Then, after speaking at considerable length in 
reference to the monument, and announcing that the 
people of Spartanburg would enclose it with an iron 
railing, he took his seat amid loud and prolonged ap- 
plause.'^ 

Of course, this meagre outline, hastily sketched by 
some one present for a little country newspaper, can give 
us but a faint idea of Mr. Landrum's Cowpens^ speech. 
We insert it because it is the only preserved record of 
the occasion, and because the man who made the speech, 
and the newspaper that published the outline, have both 
passed away. 

In 1857 Mr. Landrum was called upon to endure one 
of those afflictions from which mortality cannot be ex- 
empt, and which, sooner or later, all the families of the 
earth must undergo. The angel of death crossed the 
threshold of his happy home, and bore away the wife of 
his bosom and mother of his children, to regions beyond 
the boundaries of time, leaving the fireside desolate, and 
the loving husband and motherless children overwhelmed 
with grief. 

Mrs. Landrum^s health had been gradually, though 
almost imperceptibly, declining for several years, and it 



* He was forty-six years old. 



190 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G, LANDRUM, 

was feared that her disease would develop into consump- 
tion, but as she maintained her usual cheerfulness and 
went about her daily business with her usual alacrity, 
the pallid cheek and the departed lustre of the eye did 
not excite immediate alarm. She was suddenly attacked, 
however, with typhoid-pneumonia during the latter part 
of the winter of 1856-7, and after suffering only one 
week, she peacefully passed away. She was conscious 
up to within a few hours of her death, and she called 
her husband and children to her bedside and talked to 
them long and tenderly. She gave them the most 
minute directions in regard to her burial, even designat- 
ing those of her lady friends whom she wished to dress 
and lay out her body. Among her last words to her 
husband, she said, " You have been a kind husband and 
have made me happy.^^ 

She was attended in her last sickness by Dr. J. J. 
Vernon and Dr. John C. Oeland, both of whom she 
held in very high esteem, and everything that medical 
skill and yearning affection could suggest was done to 
assuage her sufferings and smooth the pathway of death. 
Her body was followed to the Mount Zion church-yard 
by a large concourse of people, and Rev. M. C. Barnett 
preached the funeral sermon. 

By this sad bereavement Mr. Landrum was left, as he 
himself expressed it, *Ho be both father and mother to 
his children.^^ This double care was now to be bestowed 
on six living children, the youngest of whom was 
about three years old at the time of the mother's death. 
It will be remembered that the oldest child, Mar- 



HISTORY. 191 



garet, died in childhood from the eflfects of a burn 
received by accident. We shall give a short account 
of the six that were living at the time of their mother's 
death. 

Mary Amarylis, the second daughter, is now the wife 
of J. S. Ballenger. She is said to bear a striking re- 
semblance to her mother in appearance, and to be very 
much like her in disposition. She was educated at 
Limestone Springs under Drs. Thomas and William 
Curtis, and graduated there in 1855, having taken a 
three-and-a-half years^ course. 

Franklin Vernon Landrum, the third child, received 
a good English education under the tutorage of Rev. 
T. J. Earle at New Prospect and later at Gowensville. 
He was a clerk for awhile in the house of Cleveland & 
Webber at Spartanburg, but on the breaking out of the 
war, he volunteered in Capt. Foster's Company, Fifth 
S. C. Regiment, was appointed sergeant and was after- 
ward transferred to the Palmetto sharp shooters. He 
was three times wounded, twice severely. About the 
close of the war he married Miss Mary Wilkins, 
and removed to Warrentown, Ala., where he still 
lives. 

John Belton O'Neall Landrum, the fourth child, is 
well known to the people of Spartanburg county, having 
represented them in the State legislature, and having 
for many years been prominently before the people as a 
skillful physician, an enterprising farmer, and sound, 
progressive Baptist. At the last meeting of the Board 
of Trustees of Cooper-Limestone Institute he was elected 



192 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

a member of the Board, to fill a vacancy occasioned by 
the death of his honored father. 

Lizzie, the fifth child, was educated at the Johnson 
Female University, located before the war at Anderson, 
S. G. She is now the widow of the late lamented Dr. 
Compton. She has spent a good portion of her time in 
the noble work of teaching, is devoted to Sunday-school 
work, and is much loved by a wide circle of friends. 

Richard Furman Landrum was the sixth child. He 
was educated principally at the Gowensville Seminary 
under Rev. Thomas J. Earle. He married Miss Fannie 
Fitzhugh, of Virginia, an elegant, accomplished, noble 
woman of the true Virginia type. He was a young man 
of high moral and religious character, of the most genial 
disposition and unaffected kindness of heart. Social, 
witty and popular, he was a charming companion and 
one of the truest of friends. He was clerk of the Wolf 
Creek church, and for several years postmaster at Earles- 
ville. Could the wishes of his many friends have pre- 
vailed, Furman Landrum would have lived to old age ; 
but the Great Disposer of events ordered it otherwise, 
and called him hence at the early age of thirty-two. 
He bore up manfully for many months against the 
ravages of a pulmonary disease, and, at last, passed away 
peacefully only about a year after the death of his father. 
His stricken widow, with four little children, now lives 
at Landrum City, on the Spartanburg and Ashville 
railroad. 

Cheves Montgomery Landrum, the seventh child, was 
only three years old at the death of his mother. He 



HISTORY. 193 



received a good English education^ married Miss Linnie 
McBee, of Greenville^ and is engaged in the office of 
mesne conveyance of that city. He is an excellent 
penman^ a practical surveyor, and a man of fine busi- 
ness qualifications. 



13 



CHAPTEE YII. 

SECOND MARRIAGE — THE EARLE FAMILY — INTEREST 
IN THE SECESSION MOVEMENT — DURING THE WAR 
— MOVES TO NORTH PACOLET — DEATH OF SECOND 
WIFE — RECALLED TO MOUNT ZION AND BETHLE- 
HEM — TAKES CHARGE OF WOLF's CREEK CHURCH 
— CHURCH HISTORY — ORGANIZATION OF SPARTAN- 
BURG ASSOCIATION — LAST DAYS — SICKNESS AND 
DEATH. 

npHE duties of both father and mother pressed heavily 
-■- on Mr. Landrum, yet he met the increased respon- 
sibility with increased exertion^ sustained by a sublime 
trust in the goodness and wisdom of God. His work, 
as a minister, called him away from home every week, 
and not unfrequently kept him away for days, and 
sometimes weeks together ; but the children always 
knew when to look for him, and nestling closely to one 
another in love, they yet vied with one another in efforts 
to merit his approval. His eldest daughter, Mary, then 
quite young, assumed the charge of the household, and 
for many years she stood in the place, and performed, as 
best she could, the loving duties of the mother that was 
gone. And when another household claimed her love, 
and her heart and hand had been bestowed upon the 

man of her choice who was worthy of them both, then 
194 



LAST DAYS, 195 



her younger sister, Lizzie, stepped into her place in the 
family home and in the affections of the family circle. 
Her untiring and unselfish devotion to the family 
through many succeeding years, extending through 
another period of bereavement, made her the centre, if 
not the head, of the household, and endeared her 
especially to the father^s heart. It was not until the 
family had passed through its most trying years that she 
would consent to leave it, and then to bestow her hand 
on one of the best of men. 

In 1859, Mr. Landrum was married to Miss Nancy 
Miller Earle, a noble, consecrated woman, well worthy 
of his affections and well qualified to adorn and brighten 
his home and to cheer and comfort his heart. She came 
of a high-toned religious family that has given to the 
country and to the Baptist denomination its full quota 
of noble men and women. She was the sixth child and 
second daughter of Theron and Hannah Earle, and 
sister of Rev. Thomas J. Earle, who has already been 
frequently mentioned in the progress of this memoir. 
Her father was the son of Baylis and Mary Earle, who 
emigrated from Virginia before the Revolutionary War. 
Theron was born at Earlesville, in Spartanburg county, 
S. C, and spent the days allotted him on earth not far 
from the place of his birth. He was married in early 
life to Miss Hannah Miller. He was a man of great 
energy and industry and acquired a fine property. He 
was remarkable for his good practical sense, his kindness 
to the poor, and his general intelligence. Though he 
was modest and unpretentious, his sterling qualities of 



196 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

head and heart were appreciated and admired by a wide 
circle of friends. He was for a number of years Ad- 
jutant of the Thirty-sixth Regiment, S. C. M., and was 
honored by his fellow citizens with a seat in the State 
Legislature. He and his wife had seven sons and two 
daughters born to them, of whom four sons and the two 
daughters lived to maturity. 

One of his sons, Dr. M. B. Earle, became an eminent 
physician in the city of Greenville. 

Crawford Montgomery Earle, another son, began 
business as a merchant in Greenville, but died soon after 
his first stock of goods was placed in the shelves. 

The remaining two sons, Thomas J. and O. P. Earle 
are still living. The former of these is so well known 
and he has already been so frequently mentioned that 
further notice here is unnecessary. It would be diiBcult 
to write much about religious and educational progress 
in Spartanburg during the last twenty-five years without 
mentioning the name of Thomas J. Earle. O. P. Earle 
is a member of the Wolffs Creek church, near which he 
lives. He has inherited many of the strong traits of 
his father, and is a worthy representative of a worthy 
name. He is quiet and unobtrusive in his demeanor, 
attentive to his business, well-to-do in the world, kind 
to the poor, while his strong sense and known integrity 
give him position and influence among all who know 
him. With his beautiful home backed by his broad 
acres of fertile lands, and his elegant and loving family 
making home more beautiful still ; with the confidence 
and esteem of his fellow-men secured by uprightness 



LAST DAYS. 197 



and integrity, surely he may say, like the psalmist, 
'' The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places, and I 
have a goodly heritage/^ 

Elizabeth Earle, one of the two sisters, became the 
wife of Gen. J. W. Miller, a man whom Spartanburg 
county often honored with various positions of trust 
and responsibility, and who proved true to every trust 
that the people committed to him. 

The education of Nancy Earle was begun in the 
schools near her home, taught by such teachers as could 
be procured by the patrons. One of her teachers was 
William Dickson ; another was Richard Golightly, who 
taught two years near her father's house. She afterw^ard 
went portions of two years to Mr. Landrum when he 
was teaching at Rock Spring, as has already been stated. 
It is well that the events of the future are concealed 
from mortal vision. The teacher at Rock Spring and 
the timid little school girl would have regarded each 
other with an interest, perhaps, not very favorable to 
intellectual progress and development, could they have 
opened the book of life and read the decrees of destiny. 
Her education was finished in the Greenville Female 
Academy, taught by Mr. Halenquest. She joined the 
Wolf's Creek church, December 3d, 1846, and was 
baptized by Mr. Landrum in North Pacolet, at a place 
near the home of her childhood, having been specially 
awakened to her need of a Saviour on the 6th of October, 
1845, the day on which her brother, Thomas J. Earle, 
joined the church at New Prospect. 

She was reserved and modest, but accomplished and 



198 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G, LANDRUM, 

intelligent^ of decided character, true piety, and of 
remarkable neatness and order. 

Three children were born to her and Mr. Landrum, 
only one of whom is now living. One died in infancy, 
and another at three years of age. The latter, little 
Earle, was a bright, promising boy, and his death was 
a sore trial to both father and mother. The third 
child is Miss Nannie Earle Landrum, who was educated 
under her father's direction in the Williamston Female 
College, where she graduated before his death. Since 
his death she has taken a two years' extra course in 
Richmond, Va., with the special view of preparing 
herself thoroughly for the noble work of teaching. She 
is now a teacher in the Cooper-Limestone Institute, an 
institution secured to the Baptists mainly through her 
father's instrumentality, and which he loved as "the 
child of his old age." 

It has already been stated that Mr. Landrum was a 
member of the Secession Convention of South Carolina 
in 1860, and his work as chaplain and colporteur in the 
army has also been detailed. 

Mr. Landrum never carried politics into the pulpit, 
and no man entertained a more hearty contempt than 
he, for the politico-sensational preacher, who would 
debase the high calling of a minister of the gospel, by a 
vile subserviency to demagogism and party purposes ; 
yet he held that his calling as a minister, so far from 
interfering with his rights and duties as a citizen, clothed 
those rights and duties with a higher significance, and a 
more sacred importance. In a word, he held that a 



LAST DAYS, 199 



preacher ought to be an example to others, in temporal 
as well as in spiritual things, and a better and more 
watchful citizen by virtue of his position as a teacher 
and expounder of God's word. He had long watched 
the cloud that had been slowly gathering on the northern 
horizon ; and when Mr. Lincoln was elected president of 
the United States by a party pledged to the overthrow 
of Southern institutions, and to the annulling of the 
rights of the States under the constitution, he considered 
that one party to the federal compact had flagrantly 
violated its obligations, and that the other party was 
thereby not only released from its obligations, but was 
compelled to look after its own interests. Ee openly 
declared himself in favor of secession, and when he was 
nominated as a delegate to the State Convention, he 
publicly warned the people not to vote for him if they 
did not wish the State to withdraw from the Union, for, 
if he went to the convention, he would certainly advo- 
cate and vote for secession. 

On his return home from the convention, he was 
serenaded by the old artillery company, that had for 
years drilled and paraded at Timmon's Old Field, and 
a salute was fired in front of his residence in honor of 
the passage of the ordinance of secession. The country 
was now thoroughly aroused, and soon afterward the 
Thirty-sixth Regiment of Militia was assembled by 
order of Colonel Legge, at Bomar's Old Field, and a 
call was made for volunteers. Mr. Landrum appeared 
upon the field on horseback, and urged the men to go 
forward in defence of their country, declaring among 



200 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

other things, that he would vouch for the artillery 
company^s doing its whole duty. It is said that when a 
few minutes afterward, the order was given for volun- 
teers to step to the front, the artillery company, with the 
exception of one single member, marched forward in a 
body, amid the beating of drums, the waving of banners, 
and the shouts of the assembled multitude. 

More than one great divine in the world^s history 
have been fascinated with the pageantry of war, and 
have lost sight of their holy mission amid scenes of 
human slaughter ; but it may be truthfully said of Mr. 
Landrum, that he realized fully the responsibilities of 
his mission as a preacher of righteousness, and that his 
soul recoiled with horror from the thought of war and 
bloodshed. It was only a stern sense of duty — the 
irrepressible instincts of a high-toned and noble man- 
hood — that brought him out on such occasions as that 
just named; and when the occasion was over, he returned 
immediately to his life-work with ardor unabated, and 
aspirations untainted by the worldly contact. 

The war came on with all its untold horrors. It is 
not only the carnage of the battle-field, and the heart- 
sickening scenes of the hospital that make war horrible. 
To these must be added the unsettling of society ; the 
destruction of property ; the blighting of human hopes ; 
the frustrating of human plans; the searing of con- 
science ; the sway of angry passions ; the reign of every 
vice ; the disregard for law ; the wide-spread desolation 
and demoralization that settle like a pall upon the land 
and people. Religion languishes, for religion would 



LAST DAYS, 201 



bring ^^ peace on earth, and good will to men ^^ ; while 
demons reign, and rejoice in the wild fury of the strife, 
and the moral degradation of mankind. 

Mr. Landrum deplored the war as all good men did, 
but he accepted it as a direful necessity and as the only 
path of safety. While in the Secession Convention, in 
Charleston, he wrote to his wife, under date of December 
29th, 1860, ^^ I am quite well and at my post. We are 
approaching near to the point whether we shall have 
peace or war for our rights. Commissioners are at 
Washington in negotiation mth the President. I cannot 
say what will be the result of their mission. I, how- 
ever, hope for the best.^^ 

Through the kindness of Miss Nannie E. Landrum, 
we have quite recently been permitted to examine some of 
his letters from the army to his wife, and we make some 
extracts from them as showing something of the nature 
of his work, his tender affection for his family, and the 
minute care he bestowed upon everything about home. 

We shall disregard the chronological order of these 
letters. From Camp Pemberton, S. C, he writes : 

'' January Slst, 1862. 

" I write to you to let you know that I am always 
thinking of you, and though I do not see you, still I 
remember you and would not have you think for a 
moment, that I regard our separation as a light thing. 
On the contrary, it is one of the great privations and 
sacrifices of my life to be separated from my family at 
this time ; and nothing but the fact that the country is 



202 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

involved in war which threatens its ruin, and the de- 
struction of all that is dear to you^ myself, and our 
children, could reconcile me to the separation. The war 
seems to be assuming a dark and threatening aspect. 
When it will close, the God of heaven only knows, but I 
fear not soon. Still, I hope it will not last long. * * * 
I am, through mercy, in good health and am performing 
my duties as well as I can.^^ 

" October 10th, 1861. 

" I am well, through mercy. Tell that he had 

better not come now, as he did not come at first, as I 
never before saw as much sickness in all my life. I 
have just returned from Columbia on a visit to the sick. 
I have started from Columbia a barrel of molasses, a 
barrel of sugar, and a bushel of rice. They will be at 
Spartanburg by Saturday next. Send the wagon down 
on that day and have them hauled home.^^ 

"Oc^o&er 4th, 1861. 

" I am quite well and am located pleasantly. I have 
a splendid tent entirely to myself, and I sleep as com- 
fortably as at home. We have much sickness in camp 
— mostly measles. I am quite anxious to hear from 
home. You must write to me, and tell Mary and Lizzie 
to write. I think of you all every half hour in the 
day ; indeed, you are but seldom out of my mind. I 
have Earle and Furman and ^Gomery always before me 
in my thoughts. Do take good care of them, and make 
them obey you. Lizzie must see to Furman and 
^Gomery, as Earle requires so much of your care. 



LAST DAYS. 203 



"We are making great sacrifices in this separation, 
but I trust our country and our God will reward us. I 
have much to do here — preaching and holding prayer 
meetings every night, with large assemblies, first at one 
tent and then another. I am treated with great courtesy 
by the officers and soldiers. * * * Tell Kennedy to 
make the boys mind him and to gather the peas as fast 
as they ripen, to pick the cotton as it opens, and to com- 
mence gathering the Joe Laurens field of corn as soon 
as it will do. If the weather continues dry, I think it 
may do by the 15th of the month. They must shuck 
it and put it into the big crib. 

" I pray that you may be happy and cheerful in my 
absence and that God will support us both under the sac- 
rifices we are called to make for our country. You must 
send George for the mail every Saturday as usual, and if 
the club is broken up since I left, you had better send 
him on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and I will try to 
write at least three times a week. Tell Elvira and 
Charlotte to make their boys behave themselves and to 
do their work without any fuss. Tell Kennedy if he 
wants any advice about anything to send word through 
your letters. Tell him to take good care of the horses 
and to feed the hogs bountifully twice or three times a 
day both in the pen and in the lot. I have every con- 
fidence in his doing the best he can.^^ 

"Columbia, December 31st, 1861. 

" As the convention does not meet to-day till twelve 
o^clock, I will write to you. Though I have no news 



204 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

of interest from the war ; still I may say that affairs 
about our coast are quite exciting. The enemy are 
accumulating in great numbers against South Carolina. 
Where they will strike a blow is yet unknown. Troops 
are pouring down from the up-country in great numbers. 
If they can get arms, as I suppose they can, I do not 
think the enemy will be able to advance on the main 
land. The up-country is doing all that ought to be 
expected of it. The State of South Carolina has now 
about thirty thousand troops in the field. We are 
getting a strong force, too, from Tennessee, North Caro- 
lina and Virginia. But it is a trying time for our 
country, and all will be expected to do their duty. You, 
no doubt, think it hard that I should leave home, and 
subject my family to many privations and hardships, 
that they would not have, perhaps, if I were at home ; 
but I hope you will remember that in these sacrifices 
you do not stand alone. Others, very many others are 
called on, do endure like sufferings, and far greater 
sufferings ; and I assure you there is not one hour passes 
over my head, in which I do not think of my family. The 
separation is painful to me, far more than you are aware 
of ; but I sincerely pray the Lord to take care of you in 
my absence. I hope you will all keep well and hearty, 
but if you or any of the family should be sick, I want 
you to send for Dr. Vernon, and if he should be out of 
the way, send for Dr. Cleveland. I saw the latter 
the night I left home, and spoke to him to attend to any 
of my family in case of sickness. In the absence of 
Dr. Vernon, he promised to do so. Dr. Boyd would 



LAST DAYS. 205 



willingly come, if you were to send for him. I wrote 
to Belton yesterday, in regard to having the wheat 
ground up, and in the letter I enclosed a paper of 
needles, which I hope will come safely to hand. I have 
searched the town of Columbia over for cotton cards, 
and can find none — not a single pair/^ 

" CoosAHATCHiE, S. C, November 12th, 1861. 

"I hope you will not be uneasy about me. I am 
quite well, and getting on well. * * * j think of 
you every hour in the day ; but still feel under the 
circumstances that I am discharging a very important 
duty to God and my country. I hope you will feel that 
I appreciate the sacrifices you are daily and hourly 
making in my absence, but I pray that you may make 
them with patience and fortitude. If the country was 
not engaged in a most bloody war, and I did not feel 
that it is necessary for my influence and example to be 
thrown into the scale, I certainly could not be hired to 
stay away from home. If, at any time, you should wish 
to visit your Ma or Thomas, or any one else, I want 
you to take Miles and the carriage and go. As the 
weather is good, tell Kennedy to try to get the wheat 
sowed as fast as possible. I forgot to tell him to brush 
it in as he plows it. I want the hogs fed what they can 
eat. Tell him to take good care of the keys.'^ 

"Camp Johnson, October 11th, 1861. 

" I am going to Columbia to-day to see the sick in the 
hospital. I hope you all keep well and will be able to 



206 LIFE OF EEY. JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

get along comfortably. I feel it, no doubt, a greater 
sacrifice to be separated from you than you do. But the 
war has called many men from home, under far more 
trying circumstances than I have encountered in leaving 
home. We must commit our cause into the hands of a 
righteous God, and do our duty. I trust you will pray 
for me, that I may do my duty acceptably to God and 
my country.^^ 

^^ Richmond, Ya., June 2d, 1862. 

'' A great battle is being fought near Richmond. It 
has lasted now two days, and is expected to continue to- 
day, but has not commenced yet. The battle-field is 
some six miles from the city. Our division (Gen. HilPs) 
has not been in the fight. I came here last night to hear 
from Franklin (his son). Col. Jenkins' Regiment, was 
in the fight both days and lost a great many men, but I 
cannot hear that Franklin was either killed or wounded. 
All the wounded have been brought to Richmond, and 
I walked three hours from house to house where they 
were left, to see if Franklin was among them, but could 
see or hear nothing of him. I saw many of Col. Jenkins^ 
wounded, and they all knew him, but did not know how 
he came out of the battle. I think he is safe.^' 

These easy, impromptu letters, written with no thought 
of their ever being seen by others than his own family, 
give us a clearer and deeper insight into Mr. Landrum's 
character than whole volumes of description could give. 
They are the natural promptings of the heart, when 
hidden away from the world ; when the voice of ambi- 



LAST DAYS. 207 



tion is hushed, and no extraneous aids are to be called in 
to bolster up a character for a passing occasion. They 
are life-pictures of the tender, thoughtful husband, of 
the affectionate father, of the kind master, of the provi- 
dent householder, of the true patriot, of the devoted 
man of God. In such pictures, the great unbend them- 
selves; the grandeur which enveloped them as they 
towered above the multitudes and magnified them into 
unearthly giants, vanishes into thin air ; the beings of 
wonderful proportions shrink back into men of life 
size, and their qualities of mind and heart shine forth in 
the clear light of truth. 

After his return from the army, Mr. Landrum re- 
mained at home during the rest of the war, preaching 
to his churches, and doing what he could to relieve the 
wants, soothe the afflictions, and strengthen the hearts 
of the people. The truth is he was one of the men that 
was more needed at home than in the army. The wails 
of sorrow were going up all over the land, and the faith 
of many devout children of God was sorely tried. 
Before the close of the war, grim want had begun to 
show his haggard face and had crossed with stealthy, 
ghost-like tread, the thresholds of some darkened and 
desolate homes. 

It is not our purpose to detail the sufferings and pri- 
vations of those years, but merely to say that through 
them all Mr. Landrum was indefatigable in his atten- 
tions to the temporal as well as the apiritual wants of 
the people. The heart-stricken widow found in him a 
comforter and friend, and the cries of distress never fell 



208 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

unheeded on his ears. We note in one of his letters 
from the army directions ^Ho carry a load of corn to 
the poor house '' ; and when he was at home, his corn 
crib and larder were always accessible to those who were 
in need. 

The last meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention 
that he attended was held in Savannah, just at the 
beginning of the war, probably in May, 1861. He w^as 
there the guest of his relative. Dr. Sylvanus Landrum, 
now of New Orleans, but then a pastor in Savannah. 
It was the first time the two had met in life, but the 
acquaintance ripened into warm friendship, and led to 
the visit of Dr. Landrum since the war, which has been 
mentioned in the early part of this memoir. 

In August, 1863, Mr. Landrum was again called on 
to pass through the deep waters of domestic bereave- 
ment, and the faithful wife of his bosom, after so short a 
period of connubial happiness, departed with the Angel 
of Death. She was sick for several weeks, through all 
of which she bore her sufferings without one murmur of 
complaint, and died in the full triumph of the Christian 
faith. During her sickness the Tyger River Association 
held its annual session at Bethel, and it was the first 
time in its history that Mr. Landrum had failed to 
attend its meeting. His absence seemed a strange thing 
to those who had attended the meetings of the Associa- 
tion from boyhood, and, when the cause of it became 
known, many fervent prayers went up in behalf of him 
and his afflicted family. Mrs. Landrum left an infant 
daughter only six weeks old, her little boy, Earle, having 



LAST DAYS. 209 



preceded the mother to the better land ; and again was 
Mr. Landrum called to the duties of both father and 
mother. The little infant was taken and kindly and 
tenderly cared for by its grandmother, who lived with her 
son, T. J. Earle ; but, at the end of about two years, the 
grandmother, too, was called home, when the child was 
brought back to her father^s house, there to grow and 
develop into a noble. Christian woman. At the close of 
the war in 1865, Mr. Landrum, like very many of the 
best of our citizens, found himself involved in debt. 
He had the management of several estates, and was the 
legal guardian of one or two families of orphan children. 
By a law of South Carolina, passed during the war, all 
persons acting in a fiduciary character were authorized to 
invest the funds Avhich they held in Confederate bonds, 
and every principle of patriotism required trustees and 
guardians to comply with the law. Beside, there was 
hardly any other investment that could be made. Lands 
could not be purchased, except at fabulous prices ; 
money could not be loaned on any reliable security, and 
negro property was as unsafe as the government itself. 
People who owed money before the war, with the first 
flood of confederate currency, rushed forward to pay, 
and it was considered selfish and unpatriotic in the cred- 
itor not to accept the proffered payment. The creditors 
reasoned that if the Confederacy established its inde- 
pendence, its currency and its bonds would both be 
redeemed ; if it failed, then there would be little prob- 
ability that the individual debtor would be able to 
redeem his ante helium paper. So, the law just mentioned 

14 



210 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

was welcomed as a measure of great relief, and interest, 
as well as patriotism and good faith, prompted every 
man who held funds in trust for another to invest in 
Confederate bonds. After the war, the courts refused to 
recognize the validity of these bonds, and the result was 
bankruptcy and financial ruin to many of the best men 
and best financiers of the country. What was worse 
still, many men, hitherto of high character, did not 
"hold fast their integrity. ^^ They were found in the 
dark and crooked paths of dishonor, and the bogus 
transfer of property and all those arts and tricks by 
which dishonest men evade the law and defraud honest 
creditors, became the order of the day. Yet it is a 
consoling thought, and one that reconciles us to human 
nature, that there are a few men in the world whom not 
all the demoralization and disasters of war, not all the 
injustice and oppression of tyrannical governments, not 
wealth nor poverty, nor " heighth nor depth, nor any other 
creature '^ can cause to swerve one iota from the known 
path of moral rectitude. Mr. Landrum belonged decidedly 
to this small class — if small it is — and he did not hesitate 
a moment as to the course he would pursue. He never 
dallied with sin or temptation, nor held a parley with 
the enemy of souls. He declared that he would main- 
tain his honor and redeem his sacred promise, though 
the heavens should fall and he and his should be over- 
whelmed with temporal ruin. The old homestead near 
Mount Zion, which had been purchased with the ac- 
cumulations of his early days, and which was endeared 
by the fondest and happiest recollections of his life, was 



LAST DAYS. 211 



sold to Mr. Randolph Turner, and with the proceeds of 
the sale and other means obtained by personal sacrifices, 
he met every demand of his creditors, principal and 
interest in full. He and his family now moved to a 
farm on North Pacolet, the property of his second wife, 
on which he soon erected a good house, and, approach- 
ing now the age at which most men begin to seek 
repose and retirement, he finds himself beginning life 
anew, as it were, under far more discouraging circum- 
stances than those which attended the first beginning. 
But, though he may have lost some of the enthusiasm 
of former days, yet the same thrift and good manage- 
ment of the best years of his life remained, and soon 
accomplished much in restoring his losses and adminis- 
tering to the comfort and well-being of his family. His 
home was again one of plenty, and his family was again 
soon surrounded with all the comforts and many of the 
luxuries of life. His children, of whom several were 
yet in their minority, were sent to the best schools in the 
country, and their bills were paid, while he, himself, still 
rode on horseback to his churches, and preached as in 
days of yore. His home was about three miles from 
the present site of Landrum City, on the Spartanburg 
and Ashville railroad, and, having previously supplied, 
by weekly appointments, the Wolffs Creek church near 
this place, he now made arrangements by which he was 
enabled to assume regular pastoral charge of the church 
and supply it on its regular Saturdays and Sundays. 
This charge was not relinquished until death. It is a 
fact worthy of mention that about this time he was 



212 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDMUM. 

offered a considerable salary to supply a cliurch in the 
county town of a neighboring county ; he declined the 
offer on the ground that his own people near his home 
needed his services and that his first duty was to them. 
Indeed, through life, he was remarkably adapted to 
preaching to country churches and country congregations, 
and he had the good judgment to know that in his own 
appropriate field, among those who had known him and 
loved him so long, he could accomplish more for his 
divine Master than among strangers whose acquaintance 
was yet to be cultivated and whose sympathies were yet 
to be enlisted. So 

" Eemote from towns he ran his godly race, 
And ne'er had changed, nor wished to change his place." 

The Wolffs Creek church was established in 1803, as 
an arm of the Greenes Creek (N. C.) church. The first 
records mentioned it as having met ^' in society,^^ from 
which we infer that it began operations under a sort of 
organization, hardly deserving the name of church. 
The first pastor was Rev. John Blackwell, who seems 
to have served the church for a long period, as he 
emigrated to the West in 1832 or 1833, and no other 
pastor is mentioned in the records until about that time. 
The subjects on which he preached are frequently re- 
corded, and we are led to believe that he was a man of 
ability and of great faith and earnestness. 

For thirteen years succeeding John BlackwelFs pastor- 
ate. Rev. William Harmon was the pastor. He was 
venerable in years, and near the close of his ministry, 



LAST DAYS. 213 



tlie church called Rev. Jesse Center as '^ assistant pastor/^ 
" Father Harmon/^ as he was called^ still being con- 
sidered as the pastor of the church. 

As early as 1846^ Rev. John G. Landrum preached 
to the church on stated days in the week, and under his 
preaching many accessions were made to the membership. 
Then Rev. Samuel Gibson and Rev. Lawson Padgett, 
until the close of the year 1849, when Rev. Jesse Center 
returned, and supplied the church until the close of the 
year 1852. The church then was three years under the 
ministry of Rev. John G. Landrum; three under Rev. 
T. J. Earle ; three under Rev. A. J. Cancellor ; one 
under Rev. B. Page ; and three under Rev. L. Vaughn. 
We note that during several of these years, Mr. Lan- 
drum preached regularly to the church once a month, on 
some day in the week. 

The records mention the preaching from time to time, of 
others whose names are now scarcely known to this gener- 
ation ; such as Joel Zacheus, David Blackwell, Hugh 
Henderson, Thomas Grogan, Josiah Durham, Thomas 
Rice, William Christopher, John Bankston, and others. 

The church in its early days seems to have devoted a 
good deal of time to matters of discipline, and to the 
discussion of important doctrine and duties. Drunken- 
ness was the great stumbling-block and barrier to the 
churches progress, but the records show that this sin was 
neither connived at, palliated, nor excused. Many good 
men were excluded from the fellowship of the church, 
who afterward made satisfactory acknowledgments, and 
became very useful and faithful members. 



214 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDRUM. 



It was a practice at the opening of each conference to 
call for the " fellowship ^' of the church. All who were 
in full fellowship^ at a signal from the moderator, were 
required to hold up their right hands. Those who did 
not respond in this way, were expected to rise and 
explain. This practice opened the way for many con- 
fessions, charges, criminations and recriminations, and 
often led to very serious results. The practice was not 
discontinued, however, until about the beginning of Rev. 
T. J. Earle's pastorate, in 1857. 

In the record of December 27th, 1827, appears the 
following entry : '' Church met in conference, and, after 
divine worship, took into consideration the ordinance of 
washing of feet. After investigation of the subject, 
finding the church not all of one mind with regard to 
that ordinance, and believing it to be our duty to bear 
with one another in these cases, in order to keep the 
unity of the spirit and the bonds of peace, we agree to 
leave it discretionary, and that it may not appear as a 
bar in the church, request that all members keep their 
seats at such time. Unanimously agree to bear the 
churches request to brother David Blackwell.^^ 

The first house of worship was a small log house near 
the banks of Wolffs Creek, from which the church took 
its name. In the course of time, another house of larger 
dimensions, but still of forest logs, was built about a 
mile from the original site ; then, in 1855, the present 
framed building was finished and dedicated. 

The building of the Spartanburg and Ashville rail- 
road, and the location of the town of Landrum near the 



LAST DATS. 215 



churchy have been the means of adding greatly both to 
the congregation and church membership. 

The Sunday-school work of the church of late years, 
has been conducted very successfully, owing in a large 
measure to the earnest efforts of E. Alverson and T. E. 
Prince, the former of whom is a deacon of the church, 
and licensed minister of the gospel. The latter is also a 
deacon. 

The church, since its organization, has received by 
letter and by baptism, an aggregate of six hundred and 
fourteen members. It has excluded seventy-two, and 
restored thirty-six. The records show periods of great 
coldness. During the six years following 1840, only 
one person joined the church by baptism. During the 
ten years following 1854, one hundred and twenty-five 
persons were baptized. 

Time and space will permit us to mention only a few 
of the men who have been identified with the churches 
history. 

One of the original founders of the church was Hugh 
Henderson. He was born in Ireland, and reared by 
pious Presbyterian parents, but he became a Baptist, and 
was one of the first deacons of Wolf's Creek church. 
He was lieensed to preach in 1807, and ordained in 
1821. In the church records of 1837, he is mentioned 
as '' an old and beloved father in the gospel.'' He was 
for several years pastor of the Boiling Spring church. 
His body has long since mouldered in a deserted and 
forgotten grave, while his soul no doubt is flourishing in 
iuimortal youth and still expanding into wider useful- 



216 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G, LANDRUM. 

ness and mounting to higher spheres in the mansions of 
the blest. 

William Harmon has already been mentioned as 
pastor of the church for thirteen years. He is repre- 
sented as having been a man of limited education, but 
of sound sense, and possessed of a rich fund of practical 
information. He was earnest and faithful in his calling, 
and was considered, in his day, a good preacher. He, 
too, lived to a good old age, and died without a stain on 
his good name, in the full anticipation of a bright 
immortality. 

David Blackwell, Thomas Grogan, and Benjamin 
Page, previously mentioned as preachers, were all mem- 
bers of this church, and were ordained by it to preach 
the gospel. The last named lived down to the present 
times, having been dead only a few years. 

Among the deacons who have served the church from 
time to time, we note the names of Thomas Rice, Wil- 
liam Christopher, Jefferson Barton Page, Josiah Dur- 
ham, Joseph Davis, James Page, Henry Grogan, Robert 
Talley, S. W. West, Pleasant G. Page, and Young 
O'Shields. The first clerk was Baylis Earle, already 
mentioned as the grandfather of Mr. Landrum^s second 
wife. He is represented as haviog been a man of more 
learning than was usual for his day. The names of his 
two sons, Theron and Aspasis would indicate that he 
was familiar with Plato. Tradition has it, too, that he 
was very outspoken and decided in his views, often 
making issues with the preachers themselves, on points 
of doctrine. It is told upon one occasion he informed a 



LAST DAYS. 217 



preacher after services that he did not like his prayer 
that day. The preacher promptly replied, ^^ I don^t care 
if you didn't, for I did not pray it to youJ^ 

William S. Mills, a lay member, was a man of large 
means, and by his liberality contributed much to the 
financial prosperity of the church. He bore a consider- 
able part of the expense incurred in the erection of the 
present house of worship. 

The following members lost their lives in defence of 
their country during the war : Jefferson B. Page, John 
E. Hall, Pleasant G. Page, J. H. Daniel, A. A. Rudi- 
sail, W. M. Bowling, Jonas Saunders, E. W. Jackson, 
S. W. Hannon, G. W. Hall, William Townsend and 
John Wofford. 

About the time Mr. Landrum took regular charge of 
Wolf's Creek church, he also resumed the charge of 
Mount Zion and Bethlehem. It will be remembered 
that he had given up these charges in order that he 
might serve other churches, and the separation, like 
many other earthly separations, had proved to be of 
much longer duration than had been anticipated. Mount 
Zion and Bethlehem always regarded him as their own, 
and if, at times, they were prevailed on to release him, 
it was with the understanding that the release was tem- 
porary only. They felt that they had merely loaned 
him for a time to other churches. He now returned to 
both and renewed the relations which had been formed 
in his bovhood — relations which were neither severed 
nor interrupted again until his death. He now gave his 
Saturdays and Sundays to the three churches named and 



218 LIFE OF EEY, JOHN G, LANDRUM. 

New Prospect, and with these charges, and the cares of 
home and his farm, his duties began to run in some- 
thing like weekly, monthly, and yearly orbits, with 
seldom an incident or tangent to break the completeness 
of the circle. His closing years came on kindly and 
softly, and though the current of life was still broad 
and deep, and moved with majestic force, yet its flow 
was noiseless, and scarcely a wavelet ruffled its placid 
surface. We do not mean to assert, however, that with 
the advance of years, Mr. Landrum sank into a state of 
indolence and luxurious repose ; — far from it. His field 
was as wide as ever ; his appointments were met with 
the same promptitude that had been characteristic of his 
early days; and whatever enterprise was inaugurated 
for the public's good, was sure, if approved by his judg- 
ment, to enlist his sympathy and active support. But 
we mean to say only that the vigor and impetuosity of 
his early manhood were tempered now by the wisdom of 
age into a quiet energy, that moved with less demon- 
stration along the well-beaten paths of experience. He 
was the trained veteran that no longer became excited at 
the sound of the battle. 

His children one after another married, and left the 
family altar, until his youngest child alone remained. 
Then when the little town called by his name sprang up 
on the Spartanburg and Ashville railroad, he secured 
some lots, and built a comfortable residence, and again 
changed the place of his abode. His son Furman and 
wife kept the house, and he himself came and went as 
duty and inclination required. His youngest daughter, 



LAST DAYS, 219 



Miss Nannie, being now in girlhood, was kept away at 
school a good part of the time. He became strongly 
attached to his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Furman Landrum, 
and in his will, executed awhile before his death, he did 
not forget to bequeath her and her children the beautiful 
home, which she had made to him so pleasant and 
attractive. 

He had taken an active part, in organizing the Spar- 
tanburg and Ashville Railroad company, and had helped 
with his means and all of his influence to build the 
road, and it was in acknowledgment of his valuable 
services that his name was given to the little mountain 
town, to be perpetuated through all the coming years. 

The causes which led to the dissolution of the Tyger 
River Association, and the part that Mr. Landrum acted 
in that event, have already been detailed. 

In August, 1876, the churches composing the Spar- 
tanburg division of that association, with several churches 
from the Broad River Association, met by their repre- 
sentatives at New Prospect, and organized the Spartan- 
burg Association, adopting, with some unimportant 
alterations, the same constitution and rules which had 
gover aed the Tyger River through all its history. 

Many of the delegates came up to New Prospect in 
no very good humor, or devout frame of mind. Some 
of them were hampered by peculiar instructions from 
their churches, and were prepared to make peculiar and 
exorbitant demands. It was feared by_ some who had 
the good of the cause at heart, that it would be very 
difficult, under the existing state of feeling, to effect an 



220 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G. LANJDEUM. 

harmonious organization, if indeed an organization could 
be effected at all. 

It was fortunate under these circumstances that there 
was one man present in whom all had confidence — whom 
all honored and revered. By a common impulse, as it 
were, Mr. Landrum was unanimously chosen temporary 
chairman, and after a few words of explanation as to 
the object of the meeting and a few affectionate, fatherly 
admonitions, he proceeded quietly and industriously to 
the organization, calling for the church letters and hav- 
ing the names of delegates enrolled, as if the Association 
had been in existence from time immemorial. There 
seemed to be no place for objections and no opportunity 
for discussions ; the turbulent brethren brought forward 
their letters and answered to their names when called 
as the others, and the organization was speedily and 
quietly completed. It was like Neptune in the ^neid 
raising his placid head above the troubled waters, while 
the angry billows sank into repose, and the raging winds 
hushed their bowlings, and were lulled into peaceful rest. 

The Association was then permanently organized by 
electing Rev. John G. Landrum, moderator; A. B. 
Woodruff, clerk ; E. S. Allen, treasurer ; and took its 
position among its sister Associations of the State. Its 
career of nine years, we trust, has been productive of 
good and conducive to the advancement of the Redeemer\s 
kingdom on the earth. It is now composed of twenty- 
seven churches, representing at last report an aggregate 
church membership of four thousand one hundred and 
ninety-three. 



LAST DAYS. 221 



At the meeting of the Association in 1879, informa- 
tion was received through Major Thomas Bomar, to the 
effect that Hon. Peter Cooper, of New York, had inti- 
mated a willingness to donate the celebrated Limestone 
Springs property, or so much of it as was in his posses- 
sion, to some religious or benevolent incorporation, to be 
used by them for educational purposes. Mr. Landrum 
was appointed chairman of a committee to confer with 
Mr. Cooper, and the final result was that Mr. Cooper 
donated the property, valued at $22,000, to the Spar- 
tanburg Association, with the provision that it is to be 
used for purposes of education. The Association was 
then incorporated by an act of the Legislature, a board of 
trustees was elected, with John G. Landrum as President, 
and in the fall of 1881, the famous Limestone Springs 
Female High School was re-opened under the name of 
"The Cooper-Limestone Institute for Young Ladies.^^ 
Mr. Landrum worked indefatigably for this enterprise, 
and gave to it the best energies of his declining years. 
He was through life an earnest advocate of education. 
He was one of the trustees of Johnson Female Univer- 
sity, and served on the board of trustees of Furman 
University for a period of fifteen or twenty years. The 
Cooper-Limestone Institute was the pet of his old age, 
and he lavished upon it the affections of his great heaii: 
and gave it his best thoughts and his most fervent 
prayers. During the last seven years of his life he 
preached to the Limestone church on every fifth Sunday, 
reaching it from his home at Landrum by rail, a dis- 
taiii3e of some fifty miles. 



222 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

The last sermon John G. Landrum ever preached 
was at Wolffs Creek churchy on the second Sunday in 
January^ 1882, from the text, ^^ Gather not my soul 
with sinners, nor my life with bloody men/^ He 
preached to a crowded house, and it was generally re- 
marked that he displayed unusual earnestness and 
emotion. He spoke of his friends and brethren who 
had gone to their reward, whom he said he should soon 
join ; of his deceased wives, the mothers of his children, 
whom he would meet in heaven, and made an earnest 
and affectionate appeal to the unconverted, assuring 
them of the deep interest he felt in their welfare and 
his heart-felt desire that they should be saved. 

On the next Tuesday night he made his last public 
prayer. Eev. Milnor Jones, of the Episcopal Church, 
engaged in missionary work in the mountains, failed to 
reach Landrum Station on Tuesday morning in time for 
the train, and was compelled to remain over until the 
next day. He made an appointment to preach at the 
academy that night. Mr. Landrum invited him to his 
house and accompanied him to the academy. After the 
sermon, Mr. Landrum closed with prayer. Several who 
heard it, remarked that it was one of the most fervent 
and feeling petitions they had ever heard. Mr. Jones 
writes : " Rev. John G. Landrum closed the exercises 
with a prayer of unusual eloquence and power, and even 
how much more would we have appreciated it, had we 
known that this was his last public ministration — that 
the lips which there pleaded so earnestly before the 
throne of grace, would soon be cold and dumb in death. 



LAST DAYS. 223 



As it is, I shall always be thankful to our God and 
Saviour Jesus Christ that I was included in his last 
prayer, and received the blessing of his last benediction/' 

On Friday following the meeting, Mr. Landrum 
complained of heart-burn. His son, Furman, gave 
him a little soda, which seemed to relieve him. On 
Friday night he ate a hearty supper, and was taken very 
sick during the night. His son. Dr. J. B. O. Landrum, 
was sent for, who came and found him suffering from 
extreme nausea, with constant disposition to vomit. 
Aside from this he complained of a severe pain in the 
chest, such as, he said, he had never felt before. Dr. 
Landrum promptly administered an emetic, and he ob- 
tained partial relief. Dr. Landrum called in Dr. George 
R. Dean, and w^hen he arrived, it was thought that he 
was better, and from that dav till his death he seemed 
to be imj)roving. Dr. Landrum, with his family, visited 
him again on Sunday and found him still seemingly 
better, but complaining of a lurking pain in the region 
of the heart. He was disposed to talk a great deal 
about death — said, so far as his preparation w^as con- 
cerned, he had made up his mind long ago that he was 
as ready as he ever would be. " But oh ! '^ he exclaimed, 
^^ there is so much work for me to do ! '^ He added : 
" But when I do die, I shall not plead my own works, 
but the merits of a crucified Saviour, and I shall die an 
humble penitent at his feet.'' 

Dr. Landrum thought it not best to encourage him to 
talk about death, so the subject was changed, and the 
rest of the day was passed in cheerful conversation. 



224 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G. LANDRUM, 

Dr. Landrum visited him again on Monday and found 
him sitting up and apparently doing well. He himself 
thought that he would be able to meet his appointment 
to preach on the next Sunday. Tuesday and Wednesday 
he remained about the house^ and, as he did not complain 
much, the family thought he was getting on well, and 
that he would soon regain his accustomed health and 
spirits. 

On Wednesday night his youngest daughter, Miss 
Nannie E. Landrum, read to him, as she was accustomed 
to do, for a considerable length of time, and he listened 
attentively and seemed to enjoy her reading. She read 
from the county papers. Harper's Monthly, and Jenkins's 
Life of John C. Calhoun. When his daughter arose to 
leave the room, he took her upon his knee and talked 
long and tenderly. He spoke of the probability of his 
early death, and told her all his plans for the arrange- 
ment of his worldly affairs. He then spoke of the 
goodness of Providence in bringing her up to be the 
comfort and happiness of his old age, and, after some 
wise and affectionate words of counsel, he bade her go, 
and they both retired to rest. 

On Thursday, 19th of January, he arose about in the 
same condition of body and mind as he had been in for 
several days. He did not seem to be perceptibly improv- 
ing, and yet he was certainly apparently no worse than 
he had been for the last five days. After breakfast he 
directed his son, Furman, to go down to Spartanburg 
and attend to some business that was weighing on his 
mind, and added : " Be sure to come back to-day. 



LAST DAYS, 225 



Furman, for I may not live more than a day or two. 
However^ I hope the Lord will spare my life at least one 
year longer/^ He was inclined^ as he had been for a 
week, to talk much about death. To a visitor who 
spoke of his long and useful labors, he said, ^^I am 
depending solely on the merits of Jesus Christ to save 
me. I have done nothing.^' The day was bright and 
pleasant — about the only such day in the month of 
January. Toward noon he walked out to a place some 
three hundred yards from his dwelling, where he had 
some hands employed in cutting wood. The wood- 
cutters say that he came up to them, stopped, looked 
up at the sky, and turned and walked away without 
saying a word. On his return to the house it was 
remarked by those who saw him that he seemed to be 
very much exhausted. He went into the house and said 
to his daugher-in-law, Mrs. Furman Landrum, -' Fannie, 
it is past twelve o'clock.^^ Mrs. Landrum replied : 
" Yes, pa, do you want your dinner ? ^^ He answered : 
'' Yes, I am hungry.^^ 

Mrs. Landrum left the room to hasten the preparation 
of dinner, while he walked toward the back piazza, 
remarking in her hearing, as he went, " This is a sweet, 
beautiful day.'^ These were his last words. In a few 
moments Mrs. Landrum heard the sound as of a heavy 
fall, followed by a long, deep groan ; and running to the 
back piazza, she found him lying motionless on the floor. 
She attempted to revive him, but life had departed. She 
called, but the trumpet-toned voice of John Gill Lan- 
drum was hushed forever. Fifty-two years a preacher 

15 



226 LIFE OF BEY. JOHN G, LANDEUM. 

of righteousness ; seventy-two years in the battle of life, 
and never found wanting. Such is the record. 

** Servant of God, well done ! 
Best from thy loved employ, 
The battle fought, the victory won, 
Enter thy Master^s joy." 



CHAPTER YIII. 

INTERMENT AT MOUNT ZION — EXPRESSIONS OF SOR- 
ROW FROM THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE — CHAR- 
ACTERIZATION AND INCIDENTS. 

l/TR. LANDRUM'S body lay in his house all the 
-^^ next day after his death, while many sorrowing 
friends came thither to gaze for the last time on his 
familiar face, now cold and placid in death ; and the 
news spread rapidly in all directions carrying anguish 
and bereavement to hundreds of warm and devoted 
hearts. On Saturday, the second day after his death, 
the officers of the Spartanburg and Ashville railroad 
dispatched an early train from Hendersonville to convey 
his remains down the road to Mount Zion for interment ; 
and with considerate kindness, attached an extra coach 
to the train in order that all who might wish to attend 
the funeral services should be accommodated. Mount 
Zion is about three miles from the nearest point on the 
railroad. The day was cold and stormy. From morn- 
ing until night, the rain fell incessantly, and the winds 
moaned through the forests and howled across the open 
fields, as if they, too, had caught the spirit of sorrow or 
had suddenly become wild with grief. ^ But notwith- 
standing the inclemency of the day, the Mount Zion 

people turned out and met the cars with a sufficient 

227 



228 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G, LANDRUM. 

number of vehicles to convey all on board to the church. 
The crowd at the church was so large, that even standing 
room in the house could not be obtained by a great many, 
and after filling the aisles, doors and windows, many 
stood out in the drenching rain while the ftmeral services 
were going on. Dr. James C. Furman had been re- 
quested to preach on the occasion, but owing to unavoid- 
able circumstances, could not attend. Rev. Thomas J. 
Earle, with a heart full of emotion, addressed a few 
solemn words to the assembled multitude and offered up 
a devout and humble prayer ; and Rev. R. H. Reid, an 
eminent and honored Presbyterian minister, the pastor 
of Nazareth church and founder of Reidville and the 
Reidville Female College, who had ridden some fifteen 
miles through the wind and rain to take a part in the 
obsequies, delivered the address, which is to be found in 
this volume. 

At the close of his address, the corpse was borne to 
the church-yard by pall-bearers selected from each of his 
four churches, and tenderly consigned to its mother 
earth. As the grave received all that remained of John 
G. Landrum, it was all in keeping with the spirit of the 
occasion that the heavens should be darkened and the 
clouds should weep and the winds should howl a solemn 
dirge. 

It would be out of place to notice here all the letters 
of sympathy and condolence which were received by 
members of Mr. Landrum's family when the fact became 
known that he was no more. But it is especially pleas- 
ing to notice some of the tributes of affectionate esteem, 



INCIDENTS. 229 



which came from those who diiFered from him in points 
of doctrine and articles of religious creed. Beside the 
honesty loving tributes paid to his memory by Mr. Eeid 
in two public addresses^ from various others came vol- 
untary testimonials to his worth as a man and to the 
high estimation in which he was held as a minister of 
the gospel. We have already quoted from Rev. Milnor 
Jones^ of the Episcopal Church. Hon. John H. Evins, 
of the Presbyterian Church and member to Congress, 
himself soon to be cut down in the prime of his manhood 
and usefulness, in a letter to his wife from Washington, 
written in the midst of pressing duties with no thought 
of its ever becoming public, said : " Your letter gave me 
the first intelligence I had of Mr. Landrum^s death. I 
always had the highest regard for him, and few men, in 
my opinion, have done more good in the world. I think 
he was the first preacher of any denomination (except 
the Presbyterian) that I ever heard preach. The news 
of his death made me very sad, and brought up a crowd 
of recollections running back through many years. I 
think Spartanburg owes him a great deal and should, in 
some suitable manner, strive to perpetuate the memory 
of his good works.^^ 

The following letter from Dr. B. F. Kilgore, also a 
Presbyterian, was addressed to Dr. J. B. O. Landrum, 
under date of January 24th, 1882 : 

'' My Deab Sir : — I am unwilling to allow the occa- 
sion to pass, sad as it is, without writing to you. It is 
with deep sorrow that I have heard your honored father 



230 LIFE OF REV. JOHN G, LANDEUM. 

and my much-esteemed friend has passed away. Full of 
years as well as honors^ he has left perhaps more friends 
behind him than almost any man who could have gone. 
No one^ I am sure^ in our county or in upper South 
Carolina, was more revered and loved. 

'' I knew him nearly fifty years ago, when I was but 
a boy, and he was quite a young man, in his ministra- 
tions at Clear Spring church, Greenville county, and 
learned to love and admire him. In more mature years, 
I knew him as pastor of the Bethel church, where I and 
my family ever waited on his services with great pleasure 
and satisfaction. About this time, in my little political 
aspirations, I found him a warm and devoted friend. 
In the troublous times of 1860, we met as colleagues in 
the memorable convention which precipitated the late 
war. Having always advocated the same measures, we 
both buckled on our armor when the strife began, and 
hastened to the front. We were of the very few members 
of that convention who went to the field. 

'' In all the long period of my acquaintance with him, 
I have found him ever true, and equal to any position in 
which he was placed ; a warm and liberal minister 
attracting all denominations to him by his liberal views ; 
high-toned in all his opinions, both of church and state ; 
a man of whom it may be truly said, he was sans peur 
et sans reproche, * * * j^ j^^^g never been more 
truly said of any departed one that ^your loss is his 
gain,^ than in the case of my departed friend. 
^^ Very truly, your friend, 

^^B. F. KlLGORE.'^ 



INCIDENTS. 231 



Dr. James H. Carlisle, president of Wofford College, 
said, on hearing of his death : " The loss is irreparable ; 
there is not a man in all the world can take his place, 
and carry on his work/^ And yet Landrum was an 
uncompromising Baptist, and did more to advance the 
Baptist cause than any man that has ever lived in Spar- 
tanburg county ; and in some directions, more than any 
man that has ever lived in the State of South Carolina. 
The above tributes are not those that are paid to time- 
servers and compromisers. They are the voluntary offer- 
ings that the true and good, of whatever name or creed, 
bring to the shrine of genuine manhood and departed 
worth. 

It is true, Landrum was no controversialist. It is 
doubtful if during his whole life, he ever once gave or 
accepted a challenge to controversy on any point of 
religious doctrine. In the great themes of the atone- 
ment of Jesus Christ, of salvation by grace, of the utter 
depravity of the human heart, of repentance, regenera- 
tion, the goodness, mercy, long-suffering, wisdom, holi- 
ness, and justice of God, and such kindred themes as 
proceeded from them, he found ample scope for all the 
powers of his mind and heart. 

In vindication of the wisdom of his policy, as well as 
for the benefit of those who seem to think that it is the 
duty of a preacher of the gospel to be continually advo- 
cating the views of his own denomination, and attacking 
the views of others, and who are in danger of mistaking 
denominational zeal for the true spirit of the gospel, we 
will relate one or two facts. 



232 LIFE OF BEV, JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

When^ in 1831^ Mr. Landrum, then twenty-one years 
of age, took charge of New Prospect church, that 
church numbered about eighteen members all told, with 
a little log hut for a house of worship, and everything 
in the surroundings tending to discourage the hope of 
speedy growth and prosperity. At the same date, the 
North Pacolet Presbyterian church, located only three 
or four miles away, was in a most flourishing condition. 
Its membershij) consisted of one hundred or more, and 
was made up of the best families of the country. Many 
of its members were persons of wealth, intelligence and 
social influence. 

Over fifty years have passed, and the wonderful growth 
of the New Prospect church and of the Baptist denomi- 
nation in the surrounding country has been detailed. 
But that is not all. In the march of those years, the 
North Pacolet Presbyterian church v/ent down, its mem- 
bership dwindled and finally became extinct, and the 
church is now a thing of the past. The old members 
died and many of their children and grandchildren were 
converted under the preaching at New Prospect and 
joined the Baptist church. Again, three miles south of 
Mount Zion was Foster^s Chapel, a Methodist church. 
It was one of the oldest churches in the county. Lorenzo 
Dowe once preached in its pulpit, and, in 1831, it was a 
flourishing church with a strong membership. If we 
are correctly informed, its white membership is now 
extinct, and the house is used for public worship by the 
colored people. 

Three miles north of Mount Zion is Shiloh, another 



INCIDENTS. 233 



Methodist churchy which forty years ago was strong and 
prosperous, with a good house and an extensive camp- 
ground. The church still exists, but if we are correctly 
informed again, its membership has dwindled down to 
twenty-five or thirty, the camp-ground has been aban- 
doned and the churh is in a feeble and sickly condition. 

We do not record these facts in a spirit of boasting, 
nor as evidences of the triumph of Baptist doctrines. 
There was little or no doctrine in the case, except the 
doctrine of salvation through Christ to repentant sinners. 
The results were attained through the earnest, protracted, 
well-directed work of one man for the cause of his Lord 
and Saviour, and all true lovers of that cause, of what- 
ever sect or creed, will rejoice that the work was done. 

Mr. Landrum was never a revivalist in the popular 
sense of the term. His preaching was of a character 
calculated to make people think and act, rather than to 
excite temporary emotions. Yet he certainly baptized a 
greater number of persons than any man that has ever 
lived in Spartanburg county. It is impossible now to 
state the number with any accuracy, but taking the fifteen 
hundred whom he is known to have baptized during his 
ministry at New Prospect as a base of calculation, it is 
safe to conclude that the whole number must have 
amounted to more than six thousand. 

His manner of treating a subject in the pulpit was 
somewhat similar to that of Dr. Thomas Chalmers. He 
had but few points in a discourse, but these were strong 
ones, around which his mind seemed to move as if on 
hinges. No man ever understood better how to repeat 



234 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G, LANDRUM. 

an idea in ever- varying forms of expression^ each one of 
which advanced in regular climax toward the point of 
culmination^ until it had been completely driven home to 
the hearts and understanding of his hearers. These 
repetitions were sometimes made with remarkable effect. 
The writer remembers^ when a little boy^ to have heard 
him preach a sermon from the text : '' Blessed are the 
dead who die in the Lord from henceforth ; yea, saith 
the spirit, they rest from their labors, and their works do 
follow them.^^ He gradually rose in power as he 
advanced with his subject and carried his congregation 
with him. Having asserted the proposition that the 
works of the pious dead follow them here on earth as 
well as up to heaven, he began to detail, as illustrations, 
some of the scenes of the great revival of 1832-3, of 
which he himself had been a witness, and in which he 
had been a prominent actor. He told of one convert 
after another coming to the church and beginning to 
relate his experience by saying that he had been first 
awakened years ago by a sermon preached by Lewis 
Rector. And then another would come, saying, " I, too, 
was awakened by Lewis Rector, ^^ and still another, say- 
ing, '' It was Lewis Reeior^^ and when the meeting closed, 
to be resumed at some other church, it was the same 
story, Lewis Redor, Lewis Rector, and '' I exclaimed,^^ 
said the preacher, ^^well, surely Lewis Rector's works 
are following him.^' It is impossible to give on paper 
any idea of the effects produced in that case by the con- 
tinued repetition of the name of Lewis Rector in such 
connections. It will be remembered that Lewis Rector 



INCIDENTS. 235 



had preached all his life without seeing many tangible 
results. 

Mr. Landrum's manner of delivery was peculiarly his 
own. Some of his gestures would appear awkward 
when judged by the set rules of gesticulation^ and many 
of his figures, as well as his modulation and emphasis, 
might fail to meet the abstract requirements of school 
books, but from the moment he began, the interest of his 
hearers in the subject presented, increased; and as he 
proceeded, and the eye kindled from the glowing fires 
within, they forgot to apply rules, and every tone and 
every movement of his body seemed in perfect keeping 
with grand and mighty thoughts struggling for utterance. 

He did not preach without extensive and thorough 
preparation, though after his early days, he never used 
manuscript or even notes. The notes mentioned in this 
volume were the helps of his youth, employed in the 
process of breaking himself to the harness. When 
this process had been completed, like Saul's sword and 
armor, they were thrown aside as hindrances, rather than 
retained as helps. 

Notwithstanding he did not attempt to preach without 
preparation, yet on no occasion, in the whole period of 
his ministry, was he ever found unprepared. He seemed 
to be equal to the most unexpected emergencies. 

About the year 1844 or 1845, he was sent for to 
preach on the occasion of the burial of Harrison P. 
Woodruff, at Woodruff. He arrived on horseback, 
having ridden a distance of more than twenty miles, 
only a few minutes before the time at which services 



236 LIFE OF EEV. JOHN G, LANJDBUM. 

were to begin. He was informed after his arrival^ that 
the dying man had expressed a desire that his funeral 
should be preached from the text^ ^^ If a man die^ shall 
he live again ? ^^ and the mourning friends were anxious 
that it should be done. The preacher seemed not in the 
least disconcerted, but took the text and preached one of 
his most powerful sermons, dividing his subject into 
heads and arguing the immortality of the soul from 
Scripture and from nature, as systematically and power- 
fully as if he had had time to draw up a regular outline 
and to study each point in order. 

At the Association on Sunday, when the vast crowd 
was gathered under the brush arbor, and the outskirts 
were in commotion ; when men and women were passing 
to and fro all over the grove ; when lovers and their 
sweethearts were laughing and talking all around in 
buggies and carriages ; when horses were neighing and 
children were crying in many directions at the same 
time — here Landrum was ^^ on his native heath.^^ 

His powerful voice rang out over the grove in the 
tones of a trumpet ; the moving throng on the outskirts 
became still ; the passers-by stopped ; and even the light- 
hearted lovers in the carriages, sometimes turned pale 
and fixed their silent gaze upon the man who was wield- 
ing the powers of speech over all that multitude. 

At the meeting of the Tyger River Association at 
Standing Spring, in Greenville county, in 1874, he 
preached the annual missionary sermon on Sunday 
under circumstances similar to those just mentioned. 
His text was from Revelation, "And I saw another 



INCIDENTS. 237 



angel flying in the midst of heaven bearing the ever- 
lasting gospel/^ 

He was full of his theme and steadily rose in grandeur 
and power. He said he remembered the time when 
Adoniram Judson departed to Burmah^ and when Luther 
Rice first traveled over the country to arouse the people 
to the importance of sending the gospel to the heathen. 
He then detailed the great and rapid progress that had 
been made in the glorious work ; the triumphs of 
science, the spread of knowledge, the achievements of 
human skill and human genius, considering them all as 
but harbingers of the early conquest of the world for 
Christ. 

The sermon was listened to with profound interest by 
a vast concourse of people, and when it was over an 
aged minister from another county stepped upon the 
platform, in the presence of the whole congregation, and 
lovingly embraced the speaker, while he and many 
others wept tears of joy. 

Mr. Landrum never indulged in jest or levity, even 
in social intercourse with his friends, and he had no 
toleration for it in the pulpit. 

Eev. John L. Norman, of Gowensville, is authority 
for the following : " Once at a camp-meeting at Holly 
Springs, there was a preacher present, who had created 
quite a sensation in some parts of the country by his 
preaching, and had had his own head turned by the 
injudicious compliments that had been ^ paid him. He 
was appointed to preach, and began by saying that he 
would tell his congregation in the first place, how long 



238 LIFE OF BEY, JOHN G. LANDRUM. 

he was going to preach, as they had a right to know. 
He was going to preach till he got done. Then he said, 
he would not tell them where his text was, for he knew 
that they wouldnH remember it. He then proceeded to 
tell an anecdote. A preacher once took his text in 
Timothy, and a boy who had heard him, in attempting 
to locate the text for his father, said that it was to be 
found somewhere in clover. By the time the speaker 
had finished the anecdote it began to rain on the exposed 
congregation, and Mr. Landrum^s patience was well nigh 
exhausted. He stepped forward in the midst of the 
confusion caused by the shower, and began to talk to the 
people. Leaning on the book board of the stand he 
told them to be quiet just for a few moments. It was 
true it was raining, and the arbor afforded but a partial 
protection, but there was a day coming when the rains 
would cease, and when there would be a rain of fire and 
brimstone, and many there would then fail to find the 
slightest protection against the fury of the storm.^^ Mr. 
Norman says that he arrested the attention of the entire 
audience, and delivered a soul-stirring exhortation, even 
while the rain continued to fall. 

We witnessed a somewhat similar scene at the meeting 
of the Tyger River Association at Head of Tyger in 
1873. The last sermon at the stand was interrupted by 
a sudden shower of rain, and the congregation began 
hurriedly to disperse in the most informal manner. 
Just as the confusion was at its height, Mr. Landrum 
arose on the platform and called out in a tone of voice 
loud enough to be heard throughout the entire assembly, 



INCIDENTS. 239 



^' Keep quiet a few minutes longer. It is not going to 
rain much ; just a liiilQ^just a little; and we will never 
all be together again in this world. I want us to sing 
one hymn to the glory of God before we part.^^ The 
eflFect was almost magical. It was like Neptune again 
stilling the tempest, or rather like Elijah commanding 
the clouds of heaven ; for just then the rain ceased, the 
sun burst forth in a blaze of light, and the hymn was 
sung by a thousand voices, with a zest and an enthusiasm 
which we have never seen surpassed. 

An eminent theologian once said, " I never hear John 
Landrum preach, but I could almost weep over the fact 
that he did not receive a regular theological training.^^ 
So, more than one great scholar, while lost in the spell 
of the Cotter's Saturday Night, or wrapt in the wonders 
of Tam O'Shanter, have bitterly regretted that the great 
Burns of Scotland was an uneducated plowman. They 
forget that the gratification of the wish implied by these 
regrets would have precluded the very cause that gave it 
existence ; and if Burns had been the man they now 
wish he had been, those humble strains so full of the 
sweets of nature, which go straight to the heart and 
awaken tones of responsive melody in every bosom not 
dead to human feeling, would never have been sung. It 
is idle, then, to indulge in any such regrets. One might 
as well regret that the lofty Southern pine, towering in 
the midst of the surrounding forest and answering the 
full purpose for which it was created, -cannot by any 
species of engrafting, become the more durable oak ; or 
weep that he who stood up in the power of the Spirit of 



240 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDEUM, 

God on the day of Pentecost, and swayed the surging 
thousands at his feet, was not Paul instead of Peter. 
Beside, Landrum was emphatically an educated man, 
and what does it matter where or how his education was 
obtained. He was educated for a specific work, and his 
education was the more eifective, because it had the 
increased power always gained by concentration. His 
library was full of choice books in almost every depart- 
ment of literature. Among these we have noticed nine 
volumes of GilFs Exposition, seven volumes of Henry's 
Exposition, Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, 
Fuller^s Works, Bible Dictionary, and concordances, 
commentaries and sermons in considerable numbers. 
His selections in history and biography were also exten- 
sive. He read Josephus a great deal and was well 
versed in Grecian and Roman history. He was through 
life particularly fond of histories of the American 
Revolution, and, of all that he had or had read, he con- 
sidered Charles Botta's the best written and the most 
reliable. He read regularly the Congressional Globe 
and was fond of biography. It will be remembered 
that, on the night before his death, his daughter read to 
him from the life of Calhoun. He knew Bunyan's 
Pilgrim's Progress almost by heart, and often interspersed 
his sermons with apt quotations from it. He never read 
novels nor poetry, except devotional poetry. Among 
the sacred poets and hymn writers. Watts and Newton 
were his favorites. He believed strongly in an educated 
ministry, and in the support of the Theological Seminary 
and higher institutions of learning. 



INCIDENTS, 241 



The young ministers in the country always found in 
him a friend and counselor^ and more than one of them 
have owed position and usefulness in a great measure 
to his unflinching support in the hour of trial. There 
was something beautiful in the kind and fatherly care 
which he bestowed upon them, and the filial confidence 
with which they approached him under all circumstances. 
He was particularly attentive to strangers who happened 
to be at any of his churches or in any public assembly 
with which he was connected. There w^as a peculiar 
cordiality and a hearty affection in the shake of the 
hand which he would give to the stranger that reached 
his heart, and made him feel at home. Rev. E. L. 
Archer, a young Methodist minister, in a talk to the 
County Sunday-School Convention, in 1882, a few 
months after Mr. Landrum's death, told how this 
cordial grasp of the hand had once impressed him. He 
had happened upon one occasion to be in one of Mr. 
Landrum's congregations, in which he had few or no 
acquaintances. He was not even personally acquainted 
with Mr. Landrum, and was feeling keenly the embar- 
rassment of his situation w^hen, at the very first oppor- 
tunity, Mr. Landrum came to him with a kind word, a 
cordial welcome, and warm grasp of the hand. Mr. 
Archer added, " I shall never forget that shake of the 
handJ^ 

He had remarkable tact for tracing family resem- 
blances, and for recognizing young people by their 
resemblance to their parents. In a sermon at New 
Prospect a year or two before his death, he mentioned 

16 



242 LIFE OF REV, JOHN G. LANDEUM. 

the fact that he had been preaching there for fifty 
years, and that those who first heard him preach were 
all dead, and he was now preaching to a new generation. 
^^But/^ he continued, ^^I know you. I can read the 
lineaments of your faces, and tell who your fathers and 
mothers were, though I do not enjoy a personal acquaint- 
ance with you all.^^ He appeared at times to be absent- 
minded, but his memory was remarkably clear and 
tenacious. He never forgot an appointment with others, 
whether to preach, to transact business or to hold social 
intercourse. He never disappointed a congregation if in 
his power to meet them. The last sermon he preached 
at Mount Zion was on New Year's day of 1882. The 
ground was covered with snow to the depth of five or 
six inches, while a chilling north wind was shaking the 
ice from the trees, and driving the snow through the air ; 
yet, seventy-two years old as he was, he drove seven 
miles that morning to meet his appointment. On the 
road he overtook an orphan boy making his way to 
church on foot. He took him into his buggy and said, 
" Well, I'll have one to hear me preach, if no more." 
But his congregation that day was respectable in numbers, 
for the people knew he would be there. He was not 
only punctual to his appointments abroad but equally so 
to his appointments at home. The family knew the 
day and the hour of his return, and, if not providentially 
kept away, he was sure to be there. 

The last Association he attended was the Broad Eiver, 
at Corinth church, in the fall of 1881. 

At the close of the morning session on Saturday, he, 



INCIDENTS, 243 



with some other brethren, was going to leave, and he 
spoke to the Association some words of encouragement 
and fatherly advice. It is said that he seemed to be 
unusually aflFected, and that the brethren generally felt 
that they were listening to him for the last time. Rev. 
W. L. Brown, then of Gaifney, now of Paris, Texas, 
made notes of his talk as follows : 

" In speaking to the ministers present with reference 
to training their churches to give to Christ's cause, he 
said : ^ My dear brethren, train your churches to give to 
all of our objects of benevolence ; and as they learn to 
give, they will love to give, and giving will become a 
positive pleasure.' 

^^ In speaking of the short crops, the result of the very 
dry year,, he said : ^ You must give a part of what you 
make this year to the Lord. When you sell your corn 
and cotton this fall, though you may have but little left 
after meeting your liabilities, you must give a part of 
that little to God. You must not be in debt to God. 
You can't afford to forget God in your contributions. 
Give freely, and trust Him to give back to you. Take 
God into partnership with you and see if you do not 
get along better. If God has given you a short crop 
this year, if you will take him into partnership with 
you, maybe he will give you a larger one next year.' 

" In speaking of education, he said : ^An educated 
man is more useful, can do more good than one who is 
not educated. Send your sons to Brother Manly (Fur- 
man University) and Brother Patrick (Greenville Mili- 
tary Institute). You can't do better than that. Send 



244 LIFE OF BEV, JOSN G. LANDEUM. 

your daughters to Brother Sam^s and Brother Griffith. 
They have charge of the Cooper-Limestone Institute^ 
We want to see old Limestone prosper as in the days of 
the past, and we believe we shall see it. We know all 
these brethren that I have mentioned to be noble, good 
men.^ 

'^ Then to all present, he said : ^ Go to work, my 
brethren. Work in your churches ; work in your Sun- 
day-school ; train up the young to love the Saviour. I 
am glad to see so many young persons growing up to 
take the places of us who are growing old. I am proud 
of the young preachers. I want them to do better 
work than the old ones have done. I pray that you 
may be more useful and train your churches better, and 
have better Sunday-schools than any of us have ever 
had. I am an old man now. Perhaps I shall never 
meet with this Association again, and I bid you all an 
affectionate farewell.^ ^^ 

A year or two before he died, Mr. Landrum preached 
the funeral of Rev. Bryant Bonner, at Grassy Pond 
church in Broad River Association. The previous rela- 
tions existing between these two men had been peculiarly 
intimate. There perhaps never were two men more 
unlike in some respects and yet more congenial in others. 
Bonner was endowed with a keen sense of the ridiculous, 
was fond of jokes and anecdotes, and being a superb 
mimic, he could keep a social party in an uproar of 
laughter for hours at a time. Landrum, as has been 
said, never had much relish for fun, rarely told a joke, 
and never indulged in merriment over the blunders and 



INCIDENTS. 245 



mistakes of others; Somehow the two met about Buck 
Creek in early life, and a mutual attachment sprang up, 
which became stronger and stronger as the years went 
by, and age came on apace. Bonner was the younger 
by seven years. He had been baptized by Rev. James 
Webb into the fellowship of the Buck Creek church 
when he w^as about twenty-five years of age, and from 
the time of his conversion he had had strong impressions 
to preach. 

Landrum took him by the hand, as it were, and ad- 
vised, encouraged and strengthened him. He was, how- 
ever, not ordained until 1852, ten years after his con- 
version. 

Then the two friends met on still higher and firmer 
ground, and their souls became knit together as David^s 
and Jonathan's were. Lil^e David and Jonathan, too, 
they made a covenant, not with regard to their descend- 
ants, but to themselves. They made a mutual promise 
to visit each other at least once a year, while life should 
last. This promise was faithfully kept until Bonner 
received the summons to " come up higher,'^ soon to be 
followed by him he had loved so well. In the blest 
abode to which they have been called, their earthly 
covenant is now perfected, and they dwell as members 
of one happy family, while their " mouths are satisfied 
with good things, and their youth is renewed like the 
eagle's.^' 

At the funeral at Grassy Pond, Mr. Landrum said, 
with deep emotion, '' I had expected Brother Bonner to 
preach my funeral ; '' and when he spoke of his death 



246 LIFE OF EEY. JOHN G, LANDBXJM, 

before the Tyger River Association, he said, '' He was a 
large man, with a large heart, large desires, large affec- 
tions, and a large soul/^ 

Mr. Landrum was the guardian of six minor children 
at the close of the war. The most of these were 
educated under his direction. 

One of them. Miss Ann Chapman, graduated in 
Ashville, N. C, with the highest honors of a class of 
eighteen. Another, the wife of Maj. C. C. Turner, of 
Spartanburg county, S. C, when on her death-bed, 
clasped her arms around his neck, and in feeble, though 
loving tones, thanked him again and again for all the 
watchful care and fatherly attention which he had so 
kindly bestowed on her. 

He Avas, moreover, a kind of neighborhood lawyer, 
being often consulted in regard to matters in dispute 
among his neighbors, and many were the cases amicably 
adjusted through his friendly advice, which had prom- 
ised years of discord and litigation. He was familiar 
with many of the forms of law, and wrote a greater 
number of deeds, mortgages, wills, etc., than any man in 
the county outside of the legal profession has, perhaps, 
ever done. 

His servants were greatly attached to him and most 
of them remained with him after they were set free and 
served him as faithfully as when they were slaves, 
always addressing him and speaking of him as '' Mas- 
ter,^^ and looking to him for direction, advice and 
protection. 

He was emphatically a public-spirited man, and was 



INCIDENTS, 247 



through life closely identified with all the public enter- 
prises, both of a religious and secular character, that 
were undertaken by the people of his county. He was 
a born leader of men, and in whatever position he was 
placed, he was sure to command the respect if not the 
admiration of the people. But, after all, it was in the 
quiet, every-day home life, that his character shone with 
its purest radiance and his lovable qualities of mind and 
heart beamed with their softest and most enchanting 
lustre. 

We shall offer no apology for introducing the follow- 
ing extracts from letters received from his daughters, as 
they are the pure and artless tributes of filial love, and 
will give the reader a partial picture of his home life, 
which we dare not attempt to paint. 

In a letter from which we have previously quoted. 
Miss Nannie E. Landrum says : 

'' The manner of his death was in accordance with his 
often expressed desire. He dreaded to be a burden or 
trouble to any one, and many acts of attention from us 
were done under protest. 

'' We have often remarked father's special fondness for 
little children. My brother's children would cry for him 
when he left, and would welcome his return with shouts 
of joy. I remember that little Bessie, then three years 
of age, was away from home when he died. On her 
return, her first movement was to go to his room and 
enquire for ' grand-pa.' He continued till his death a 
habit begun in my childhood, and never came home 
from his appointments v/ithout bringing confectioneries- 



248 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G, LANDRUM, 

or fruit to my brother's children. His devotion to his 
family has impressed me most of all. He was conscious 
of our faults, but never spoke of them in the presence of 
the family. He always took the greatest interest in 
home, even when burdened with other duties. He 
supervised the garden ever since I can remember, and it 
was always his pride. 

^^He was fond of music, and rarely did an evening 
pass when he was at home, that he did not ask me to 
sing and play for him. I have often known him to slip 
quietly into the room, while I was practicing entirely 
unconscious of his presence. He read a great deal, and 
when he took up a book or paper, he soon became 
so absorbed in it, that no amount of noise or con- 
fusion would disturb him in the least. He thought 
a great deal of his books, but often loaned them or 
gave them away. I remember, on one occasion, when 
it was bitterly cold, and snow was on the ground, 
we begged him to miss his usual appointment at 
Bethlehem. He would not think of such a thing; 
saying that he felt like a mere boy in vigor and 
energy, and he went in spite of the cold weather and 
our remonstrances. 

^^ Father was entirely free from fault-finding in the 
house. He never complained when things seemed to go 
wrong, and never failed to speak a word of commenda- 
tion when they seemed to go right. He had little 
patience with hypocrisy. I remember to have once 
heard him express his indignation at the conduct of a 
very pious (?) family, who were religiously selling the 



INCIDENTS, 249 



revised version of the Scriptures at several times their 
usual cost/^ 

Mrs. L. C. Compton writes : 

^^As a father, he was too indulgent. Always solicitous 
and anxious about his children's welfare, and distressed 
deeply if any of them were sick or unfortunate, he 
spared no pains to relieve them to the utmost of his 
ability. Nothing afforded him more pleasure than 
to see his children fond of each other, and to have 
them together at his house. It was his desire to have 
his children and grand-children take dinner with him 
during the last Christmas holidays, and he had a most 
excellent dinner prepared for them, and was greatly 
disappointed that they all could not be there. He 
told a little girl that he had seen seventy-one Christ- 
mases, and that he had no idea that he should ever see 
another one. 

" There never was a kinder husband, and, as a proof of 
it, his first mother-in-law used to call him ^a woman 
spoiler.' He was always considerate, easily pleased, and 
not fault-finding. I kept house for him a number of 
years previous to my marriage, and, although I must 
have been very deficient, being young and inexperienced, 
yet I cannot recall a single instance of his finding fault 
of the table or his clothing. He always praised every 
garment I made for him. He was not at all choice or 
fastidious about his eating. He loved everything cooked 
in different ways, and although he enjoyed eating, having 
always a good appetite, yet he never wanted any special 



250 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDBUM. 

preparations made for him^ but was always solicitous to 
have a bountiful table spread for his friends. He was 
what we women call ^a good provider/ and never let 
things get scarce in his meat house. He was especially 
fond of vegetables and took a great deal of interest in 
his garden. Doubtless many of his old friends can re- 
member how much pleasure he took in showing them 
over his farm and garden. He took notice, too, of the 
poultry, and always seemed to understand and fully 
appreciate woman^s work. He required his sons to be 
ever kind and considerate to their sisters. He had a 
remarkably fine memory, even in little things. He 
scarcely ever took memorandum^ but seldom forgot 
anything he was charged with, however small or insig- 
nificant it might be. He had but little patience with 
any one who forgot what he was charged with. A com- 
mon saying with him was I forgot is a poor excuse. 
He never passed a joke, nor could he take one ; yet I 
never saw any one enjoy natural witty expressions more 
than he. He could mimic the tones of voice of other 
persons, and all the family have that gift except myself. 
I have often known him to laugh heartily when he 
would hear his children mimic the tones of certain odd 
characters in our neighborhood. 

"He was remarkably fond of little children, and never 
failed to take notice of every little child that came in his 
way. He enjoyed their sharp sayings and never forgot 
them. He would study the dispositions of those children 
with whom he was often associated, seemed to have a 
clear insight into their future characters, and enjoyed 



INCIDENTS, 251 



speaking of whatever worthy traits seemed to be devel- 
oping in them. 

'' He was on some occasions very severe in his censure^ 
and always lavish in his praise. I have heard persons 
say, ^Mr. Landrum can make one feel the best or the 
worst as he approves or disapproves his course, and he 
can excel any one in doing either.^ He had no patience 
with gossiping and was very prudent in his remarks 
about others. He had a distaste for slang and by-words, 
but he would sometimes say of a weak, little-minded 
man, that he was a feremy diddle kind of man ; or of 
one who lacked concentration he would say, ^he jumps 
from thing to thing too much ; ^ or 

*' Thus to display his noble parts, 
1^11 rhyme it in a song ; 
He's everything by fits and starts, 
And nothing very long/ 

" He was remarkably fond of music, both vocal and 
instrumental, and said he w^anted some one to sing 
' Beautiful River \ for him when dying. He often re- 
peated hymns, especially those of Newton. 

" It was a great pleasure to him, as well as to us, to 
visit his children in his last days, and he did so very 
often. He spent a night with me not long before his 
death, and upon my inquiry next morning as to how he 
rested, he replied : ^ Oh ! very well. I had such a sweet 
dream. I dreamed I was at Limestone -church and had 
some candidates to baptize. We went to the most beau- 
tiful stream of water that I ever saw, to perform the 



252 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G. LANDRXJM, 

ordinance. It was as clear as crystal. Instead of sing- 
ing and praying on the brink of the water as is usual, I 
went down into the water, and there went down with 
me, a man whom I did not know, and whose counte- 
nance was the most lovely I ever beheld. He sang and 
prayed and — such a voice ! It was so sweet and every- 
thing around was so bright, beautiful, and enchanting 
that I became excited and awoke to find it all a dream.^ 

" On hearing my father relate this dream, I was im- 
pressed with the thought that he had caught a glimpse 
of heaven and that he would soon be called away from 
earth.'' 

Through several of the last years of Mr. Landrum's 
life, he was conscious that he was growing old, and we 
think we are not saying too much, when we assert that 
he was as fully reconciled to the fact, which, to the vast 
majority of mankind, is a most unwelcome one, as it is 
possible for human nature to become. It is hard for the 
old, who have led the masses for half a century, and 
who have been recognized and honored through all the 
years of manhood, as the exponents of truth and wisdom, 
to see contentedly and complacently younger men with 
no prestige and no experience come to the front with 
new measures and new methods, and boldly ignore the 
treasured wisdom of age. 

We do not say that Mr. Landrum was entirely exempt 
from all the trials that are peculiar to the old, and that 
he did not sometimes deeply feel and indignantly resent 
what he considered intentional disrespect aimed at him 
by those whom he regarded as novices and upstarts. 



INCIDENTS, 253 



But his insight ii^to human character was deep and 
keen, and when he had carefully weighed the motives 
and measured the principles of a man, he was ever 
ready, even to his latest day, to pay him all the respect 
that was due to his merit. It may be said to his lasting 
honor, that he retired gracefully from the scene of life, 
at a time and under circumstances which rendered a 
graceful retirement exceedingly difficult. 

A year or two before his death he asked W. R. Lips- 
comb, a faithful member of the Limestone church, to 
tell him candidly if he thought his mental powers had 
failed to any appreciable extent, and to give him, as 
nearly as he could, the measure of his present capabili- 
ties. Mr. Lipscomb informed him that he had never 
seen any evidence of the decline of his intellectual vigor, 
except in the faculty of memory. He had noticed at 
times that his memory was not as good as formerly. 

This question, asked in confidence of a long-tried 
friend, throws still more light on that honesty of purpose 
which ever dwelt in Mr. Landrum^s heart, and which 
formed one of the prominent traits of his character. 

Several years before his death, the Mount Zion church 
and congregation, reminded by the steady ravages of 
time upon his once strong and robust frame, that the 
period was not far distant when the beloved pastor 
would be removed from this scene of earthly turmoil, 
and wishing to preserve some fadeless memorial of him, 
as well as to exhibit some token of. their love and 
gratitude, engaged Mr. Albert Guerry, South Carolina's 
distinguished artist, to paint a life-sized portrait of him, 



254 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G, LANDRVM. 

to be placed in the churchy and to remain there as the 
legacy of future generations. It is said that men who 
had never been known to contribute to the cause of 
benevolence or charity contributed liberally to this object, 
and the necessary amount, about two hundred dollars, 
was raised without any diiSculty. 

Mr. Guerry executed the portrait in masterly style, 
and it will look down from the living canvas on the 
congregations of men and women that may assemble at 
Mount Zion through the ages to come, a perpetual, 
though mute, reminder of a faithful and glorious life. 

The fifth Sunday in April, 1882, was set apart by the 
Mount Zion church for the memorial discourse (to be 
found in this volume) of Dr. J. C. Furman, who, it will 
be remembered, was prevented from being present at the 
interment in January. We make extracts from an 
account of the day's proceedings, given by the Baptist 
Courier : 

^^ Perhaps never before was such a crowd drawn 
together in South Carolina, on such an occasion. Long 
before the time appointed for public worship, on all the 
roads converging to the site, were seen long lines of con- 
veyances making their way to the place of meeting. A 
large cemetery, substantially enclosed with stone, stands 
on the side of the road, opposite to that on which the 
church edifice stands. Through the open gate, groups 
of men and women were passing in and out, as sad and 
tender lookers at the last resting-place of him, who had 
been their life-long friend ; their religious counselor and 
guide. The mound which marked his resting-place was 



INCIDENTS. 255 



covered with floral (decorations laid there by the hands of 
loving women. A stand had been erected for the 
accommodation of the preachers present^ with a desk in 
front appropriately draped in black. Sittings had been 
provided for more than fifteen hundred hearers. These 
proved insufficient^ and many were seen standing beyond 
the seats, while others occupied buggies and carriages, 
and the windows of the meeting-house adjoining. 
Different estimates were made of the number in attend- 
ance. The largest was that there were three thousand 
present. Greenville county and North Carolina and 
Georgia contributed to the crowd, which, of course, was 
mainly supplied by Spartanburg. Our Presbyterian 
and Methodist friends were not only seen in the audience, 
but were represented by ministers present. The ser- 
vices were opened with an invocation by Dr. Whitfield, 
the successor of Bro. Landrum in the pastorate of Mount 
Zion. Prayers were offered by Brethren M. M. Lan- 
drum, of Georgia, R. F. Whilden and E. H. Reid, of 
Reidville. Dr. Furman read the Scriptures and preached 
a memorial discourse founded on 2 Sam. 3:28. ^A 
prince and a mighty man "^ * is fallen in Israel.^ 
After the singing of two stanzas, during which the con- 
gregation stood up, a eulogistic address was delivered by 
Bro. L. C. Ezell, of Bethel church. 

" It was a pleasing feature of the occasion that a 
large number of colored people were present. As is 
well known, they are very rarely present on occasions 
of public worship conducted by the whites. It was a 
strong illustration of the worth of the venerable man of 



256 LIFE OF UEV. JOHN O, LANDRUM, 

God^ whose obsequies were being observed; that their 
recollection of him, and their ineifaceable respect for 
his ministerial character, counteracted the tendency to seg- 
regation, which has been engendered and nursed by bad 
men, not really friends either to the black or the white. 
Another very noticeable feature of the occasion, was the 
perfect order that prevailed in the vast assembly, through 
the necessarily long service. Ordinarily it occurs that 
on the margin of the congregation's meeting out of 
doors, some individuals take license to engage in conver- 
sation during the progress of worship. Groups are 
sometimes seen apparently oblivious of the sacredness of 
the occasion. But here, in the great seated mass or 
among the standers on the edge, not a single act was 
done that did not comport with the solemn scene. There 
w^as a subduing influence felt on all minds. The 
thoughts of the sainted man, now forever lost to view at 
the very spot where his presence seemed almost a neces- 
sary part of a great convocation, w^here his noble voice 
and his manly tears had been wont to stir the best 
thoughts, and to touch the tenderest feelings — this 
thought made every one realize that the moments were 
moments of deep and peculiar interest. 

"By a well-conceived purpose, the good people of 
Mount Zion neighborhood had provided bountifully for 
the throng of attendants, many of whom came from a 
great distance and would be anxious to return home in 
the evening.'^ 

We will just add a few words to the above extract in 
regard to the supplemental address of Rev. L. C. Ezell. 



INCIDENTS. 257 



Mr. Landrum had long regarded him with something 
like paternal affection^ considering him a young man of 
great promise in the work of the ministry. He had 
watched his progress, measured his ability and formed a 
high opinion of his character. Then with that parental 
fondness characteristic of his associations with the young 
ministers whom he admired and honored, he had taken 
him into his confidence and affections, and had in various 
ways encouraged and strengthened him in his work. 
With a heart full of appreciation, Mr. Ezell spoke in 
glowing terms of the greatness and goodness, of the 
exalted piety and genuine worth, of the indomitable 
energy and towering ability of him who was now no 
more. 

In August, 1884, Mount Zion was the scene of a still 
larger gathering in honor of the memory of the sainted 
dead. 

The Spartanburg Association was holding its annual 
session there, and, in accordance with a request from a 
committee appointed by Mr. Landrum^s four churches, 
suspended its regular exercises for a considerable part of 
one day in order to participate in memorial exercises 
held in connection with the dedication of a handsome 
monument, which four churches had erected over their 
pastor^s grave. 

The crowd present was estimated at from three to five 
thousand. Dr. George R. Dean, chairman of the com- 
mittee from the churches, was master of ceremonies. 
Two addresses were delivered at the stand in the grove, 
after which the vast congregation repaired to the ceme- 



258 LIFE OF BEV. JOHN G, LANDRUM. 

tery. Prayer was made there by Rev. T. J. Earle^ and 
the monument was then unveiled in an appropriate 
manner by Misses Lizzie Camp^ Maggie Compton, Iris 
Jackson and Sallie Hughston. The whole ceremony 
was most impressive and will long be remembered by 
those in attendance. The shaft of the monument is 
about eight feet high, with a square base, each face of 
which contains an inscription from one of the four 
churches as follows : 

East side (front) : 

MOUNT ZION. 

To our beloved pastor of fifty years. He shared our joys and sorrows 
at the altar and at the tomb. 

REV. JOHN GILL LANDRUM. 
South side : 

BETHLEHEM. 

Bethlehem's devoted pastor of thirty-six years. He led us into 
green pastures. He made ours a house of spiritual bread. From 
our hearts and homes God took him. His work remains. 

North side : 

NEW PROSPECT. 

The faithful, earnest and successful pastor of New Prospect Church 
for half a century, now rests from his labors. A Prince and a 
great man is fallen in Israel. He being dead yet speaketh. 

West side : 

WOLF CREEK. 

A searcher for the truth, he Avas among the first in the cause of 
Temperance, Sunday-Schools and Missions. Punctual, humble, 
self-sacrificing, he was devoted to duty through a longlife. " Well 
done, good and faithful servant." 



INCIDENTS. 259 



These were the last public honors paid to the memory 
of him whose life we have thus imperfectly portrayed. 
That life is a theme upon which we have loved to dwell, 
and our only regret is that we have not had more time 
to devote to the task which has been assigned us, and 
greater facilities for accomplishing it. Then, perhaps, 
we might have more nearly done justice to the theme. 
But ^^ what is writ, is writ : would it were worthier.^^ 

LINES IN MEMORY OF JOHN GILL LANDRUM. 

Suggested by a dream that visited the author the night 
before the announcement of his death. 

I saw him as he must have looked 

In early manhood's prime, 
With his dark locks still all untouched 

By the cold breath of time. 
Earth's frost had melted from his head, 

Age marred not his face ; 
His form, with years no longer bowed^^ 

Moved with youthful grace. 
He stood within the sacred desk, 

With countenance serene, 
Ministering the Master's Word^ 

His soul with love agleam. 
Full soon the vision of the nighty 

Chased by dawn of day, 
Vanished, and I with sorrow read^ 

" He hath passed away." 
Yet gladly I recall the dream 

Impressing this sweet truth, 
God's faithful servant now hath found 

In Heaven, eternal youth. 



260 LIFE OF BEY, JOHN G. LANJDBUM. 

There he hath entered into rest, 

Beyond death's darksome river ; 
They that turn souls to righteousness 
Shine as the stars forever, 
Greenville, S. C. A friend, 

Jan. 30, 1882. 

ACEOSTIC. 

BY PBOF. A. S. TUBNER^ OF YIBGINJA. 

Lo ! A Prince in Zion has been ta'en away. 
And mourners thread the streets day after day ; 
No face is seen that does not deepest sorrow show, 
Departed are our joys, and only bitter woe 
Bemains, since thou, oh ! counselor and friend, 
Unto the grave art gone, and can no longer lend 
3Iankind thy sage advice — God pity on us send. 



APPENDIX. 



MEMORIAL SERMON 



DELIVERED AT 



MOUE'T ZIO^, APEIL 29TH, 1882, 
BY JAS. C. FURMAN, D.D. 



Text : — Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen 
this day in Israel ? 2 Sam. 3 : 38. 

The first and crudest idea of greatness in man is that 
which appears as physical strength and powers. It is 
easy to see how in early stages of society and in narrow 
circles the possession of much more than the average 
share of bodily strength would make its possessor an 
object of notice. The legends of Hercules, whatever 
allowance be made for fabulous exaggerations, doubtless 
had their origin in matters of fact, and at the basis of 
those facts were the strength and courage of the hero. 
The feats and fame of Samson illustrate the same point. 
Goliath, of Gath, with his gigantic proportions, was a 
formidable menace to SauFs host. And when the valor- 
ous young shepherd from Bethlehena stepped dauntless 
into the field of combat, in cool defiance of his challenge, 

while religious indignation against an impious vaunt, 

263 



264 APPENDIX. 

and faith in the God of the armies of Israel moved 
young David^s hearty yet the perilous enterprise of 
courage was justified by his past experience of what skill 
and courage could^ with God^s blessing, accomplish in 
times when the implements of conflict were very different 
from those which the invention of gunpowder has 
brought into vogue^ when there was no fighting at long 
range, when often the serried ranks met face to face, and 
the warrior could seize the beard of his foe with one 
hand, and with the other hold him to the blow, which 
should cleave helmet and skull at once. As an example 
of this, witness the contest between the servants of Ish- 
bosheth, and those of David. When Abner, the captain 
of the servants of Ish-bosheth, and Joab, the captain of 
the hosts of David, met at the pool of Gibeon^ Abner 
said to Joab, " Let the young men now arise and play 
before us.^^ Twelve being chosen from each army, arose, 
and each, catching his fellow by the head, thrust his 
sword in him, and they fell down dead. Witness also 
the battle between the Horatii and the Curatii, where 
the fate of each army depended upon the strength and 
valor of a few select men who were chosen from each 
army to decide it. Even in our own day, and especially 
in frontier or less civilized regions the professional bully 
acquires a notoriety, and exerts an influence ascribable 
mainly to the possession of brute force or brute courage. 
In like manner the prize-fighting, which even more than 
disgraces our civilization, is but an expression of men's 
tendency to merit in brawn and muscle, even when for 
purposes absurdly useless and confessedly demoralizing. 



APPENDIX. 265 



We have a higher type of human greatness in the 
capacity to acquire knowledge and its actual acquisition. 
'' Wisdom is better than weapons of war/^ "A wise 
man is strong : yea a man of knowledge increaseth 
strength/^ are inspired aphorisms^ which antedate Lord 
Bacon^s famous sayings " Knowledge is power/^ and the 
almost equally familiar aphorism, '' The pen is mightier 
than the sword/^ The universal acceptance of these 
and such like aphorisms show the concurrent judgment 
of mankind. Solomon^s illustration is exactly to the 
same point. It is an immense peril averted, under great 
disadvantage, by the superior capacity of a simple man. 
" There was a little city, and few men in it,^^ and there- 
fore poorly garrisoned ; " and there came a great king 
against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks 
against it. Now there was found in it a poor, wise man, 
and he, by his wisdom, delivered the city.'^ Ec. 9 : 14, 
15. Great mistakes about the class of mighty men. 
They are hardly seen on the arena of aflPairs, and it is 
taken for granted that they are mere dreamers ; perhaps 
mere drones. It is supposed that the quiet of the study 
is the repose of indolence. When the ear catches the 
rumbling of the locomotive, and the eye contemplates its 
majestic tread as it speeds its w^ay, bearing along its 
freighted retinue over vast distances, with merchandise 
enough in a single train to stock a town — we are struck 
with the show of might. The joint work of road 
builders, and now of conductors and -engineers and fire- 
men and brakemen, and the vehicle, before us moving 
with more than strength, impresses us with the sense of 



266 APPENDIX. 



power in action ; and we forget the silent thinking that 
lies back of the grand achievement. But who found 
the pathway for the iron horse through the defiles of the 
mountains^ over sirbonian bogs, across lakes and rivers 
spreading like a sea ? The quiet man of science deal- 
ing with abstractions, studying the problems of spatial 
magnitudes, or searching out the laws of nature's forces, 
is the prime worker in the stupendous movements. All 
traffic on land, and navigations of the seas, and polities 
of nations have been evolved, more or less wrought out 
by men who, to a large extent, worked out of sight. 
Alexander the Great overran empires, and for the time 
being was the observed of all observers, but his short- 
lived power sinks into insignificance in comparison with 
that of his Aristotle, who, as the expounder of the theory 
of thought, is to-day recognized by profoundest thinkers 
as a prime and a mighty man. The possession of 
knowledge makes a man a great man. 

And this leads us to say that when to knowledge 
is added the power of expressing it, this is another ele- 
ment in a man's greatness. This may be done by writ- 
ing or by speech. Valuable books have been written by 
men who could not speak. Cowper's diffidence pre- 
vented his accepting a lucrative and honorable position 
as a reader of certain papers in parliament; but we 
know how sweetly and knowingly he could discourse in 
poetry and in letters. We know how musically the 
thoughts of Thomas Moore flowed, but he could not 
make a speech ; as has been said of him, " he could not 
think upon his legs." But Avhen he who is a thinker 



APPENDIX, 267 



and a writer possesses the gift of speech, there is a great 
augmentation of power. The great men who moved 
our forefathers to the assertion of the independence of 
the colonies were great speakers. Without Patrick 
Henry and the Rutledges, and other men of like power, 
the hazardous enterprise could not have been undertaken. 
In later times the political legislation culminated upon a 
trio of orators — Clay, the impassioned declaimer ; Web- 
ster, the expounder of law with the aid of a finished 
and glowing rhetoric ; and Calhoun, the political philos- 
opher, subjecting the principles of government to a severe 
Aristotolic analysis, and giving the results with the sim- 
plicity and force of true senatorial eloquence. In like 
manner, all over our great country, everywhere and 
every day, public affairs and private secular interest are 
attesting the controlling power of men who possess the 
invaluable gift of communicating thought and feeling 
by spoken language. 

But secular interests are not man^s highest interests, 
and the knowledge of philosophies and arts is not 
the most important knowledge. The earth may be 
explored, the depths of ocean sounded, and height of 
mountain measured, the laws of nature investigated ; the 
facts of political economy systematized; the methods 
and means of curing disease may be ascertained; 
travel, observation and reading may impart expanded 
intelligence, improved taste and refined manners — and 
the ends thus accomplished are exceedingly important. 
Delightful information, wealth, health and social enjoy- 
ment are precious boons, and yet they do not meet man's 



268 APPENDIX. 



greatest wants^ nor satisfy his highest aspirations. If, 
having these and nothing more, he says to himself, '' I 
am rich and increased in goods and have need of noth- 
ing ;^^ then, in the highest sense, though he does not 
know it, he is " wretched and miserable and poor and 
blind and naked/^ And this leads to remark 

That the highest power lies in the understanding 
of divine truth, and in the ability to handle it success- 
fully. Even what may be called the mere natural 
knowledge of Christianity, such as he has who only 
gazes on its surface, and its outward relation to society, 
is yet a grand possession : how much more so to under- 
stand it in its spiritual import. In the sense in which 
a life is a poem, the history of Jesus is the grand epic of 
the universe. Abraham, in indistinct perspective, looked 
toward it and was glad. Kings and prophets longed for 
the realization which passed under the eyes of men who 
lived in the days of the Incarnate Life. The very angels 
desire to look into the mysteries. '' Redemption is the 
science and the song of all eternity. Archangels hymn 
its praise.^^ The truth which it contains stands above 
all other truth in the height it sanctions ; in its essential 
purity ; in the breadth of its applications ; in the exclu- 
siveness and grandeur of the results at which it aims. 
Above the discoveries and inventions of science, and 
the deductions of reason, and the picturings of imagina- 
tion, it is heralded with the announcement, '' Thus saith 
Jehovah : O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the 
Lord.^^ The words which pour upon us from this high 
source are pure words, and therefore indestructible. 



APPENDIX, 269 



'' Heaven and ^ earth," said Jesus, '' shall pass away, 
but my words shall not pass away.'^ They are words 
of wondrous power, for they affect man down to the 
very roots of his being. They are spirit and life, and 
control man's conduct by changing his character. In 
doing this they work out a paradox ; — they kill and 
then make alive : they lead through deep dejection, 
sometimes even by. the very borders of despair to the 
sweetest hope and joy. Like the fire and the hammer 
on the rock, they break the hard heart, and yet fall with 
the gentle softness of the dew upon the penitent spirit; 
Working thus they impart a knowledge in comparison 
with w^hich every other attainment is felt to be vain. 
We do not wonder that Paul should aver, " I count all 
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of 
Christ Jesus, my Lord," for his Master before him had 
declared in his address to his Father, ^^And this is life 
eternal, that they should know thee the only true God 
and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." 

In every human being who attains this wondrous 
knowledge, the elements of power exist. Even under 
the greatest natural disadvantages, the important inward 
reality will attest itself in some way. Thus it may be 
that the converted soul is the soul of a child, yet in that 
child's simple carol you may hear the name of Jesus 
flow out with the sweet tremulousness of affection ; it 
may be the soul of a deaf mute, and what the tongue 
fails to utter, the brightened eye will express ; it may be 
the soul of a poor half-idiot, like poor Joe, who sat one 
day, by chance, on the doorsteps of Dr. Calamy's church 



270 APPENDIX, 



in London^ and heard the Doctor^s text, "This is a 
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus 
Christ came into the world to save sinners/^ From that 
day the poor imbecile was seen going about with glad- 
ness in his face, and when he was asked, " What makes 
you look so happy, Joe ? ^^ was always ready with the 
answer, " Jesus Christ came into the world to save sin- 
ners ; and Joseph is a sinner/^ 

Thus in the case of feeble powers and humble stations, 
the truth as it is in Jesus speaks impressively and savingly 
through the lips and lives of those who would be re- 
garded as ciphers in great affairs, and as " a plowboy may 
show the road to a philosopher,^^ private Christians, who, 
like Harlem Page, could not plan a sermon, or make a 
public exhortation, may speak simply, lovingly and effect- 
ively words that shall touch and guide and strengthen 
and comfort others more gifted than themselves. Aquila 
and Priscilla may be greatly helpful to ApoUos. But 
when to the spiritual knowledge which sovereign grace 
bestows — the " unction of the Holy One ^^ — are added 
those powers of mind and heart and utterance which fit 
one to melt and move men, and to do this on a broad 
scale, and through long, successive years, then we have 
" a prince and a mighty man,^^ worthier of the title than 
he would be because he had royal blood flowing in his 
veins, or could boast gigantic strength, whether of body 
or of mind. The order of the terms in David^s de- 
scription is not accidental, but designed. It intention- 
ally puts the strongest last. Some princes are in no 
sense mighty men, but all mighty men are, in some 



APPENDIX. 271 



sense, princes. The superiority of birth must not be 
paralleled with superiority of achievement. 

On the other hand, the really mighty man does a 
princely work. He may have power with God and 
prevail like a prince. He may have power with men 
and become their leader in important ways, even in the 
highways of holiness. — The fall of such a prince and 
mighty man occurred, when, with the suddenness of 
Joab's blow against Abner, the hand of death struck off 
the dear and venerable man, whose departure has occa- 
sioned the gathering of this great sorrowing multitude. 
It would be a great satisfaction to me were I able to 
give a just analysis of the ministerial character of our 
lamented brother. Had I heard him preach as often as 
many of you have done, I should be better prepared for 
this work of brotherly love. But this privilege was 
denied me. For on my first coming into this section of 
the State, though I was frequently with him, yet being 
a visitor, the work of the pulpit was, to a large extent, 
devolved on me. And at meetings of the Tyger River 
Association, which we afterward attended as delegates, 
though he was invariably appointed to preach on the 
Lord^s day, it sometimes happened that the great 
numbers in attendance made it expedient to divide the 
congregation. I was cut off from the opportunity of 
hearing him by having to preach at the same time. My 
deficiency springing from these causes, is, however, the 
less to be regretted because the work of depicting his 
character is in the hands of one who is very competent 
to do it, and who will do it with loving hands. And 



272 APPENDIX. 



yet without drawing on what he has already supplied to 
us of biographical incident^ I may add a few things 
which may pass as personal reminiscences : 

The first occasion of hearing him was previous to this 
period. It was at a meeting of the Bethel Association, 
perhaps in 1833, at Fair Forest church in Union district. 
In a capacious stand occupied by a large number of 
ministers, among whom were the tall forms of Thomas 
Green, Jonathan Davis, Thomas Ray, Ambrose Ray and 
Elijah Ray, each of them more than six feet in height, 
there was a youth of moderate stature, of fine face, over 
which emotion spontaneously flitted, with an indescrib- 
able nervous play upon the cheeks and an involuntary 
contraction and expansion about his eyelids and a gleam 
of expression from his eyes when anything fell from the 
speaker suited to call forth thought and feeling. It was 
John G. Landrum. When his turn came to speak, it 
seemed as if the attempt to reach so vast an audience 
must be beyond the capacity of his slender frame-work. 
But this illusion was soon dispelled. With a quality of 
tone for which we have no better word to express our 
idea than heartiness, he addressed the multitude, who 
hung with deepest interest upon his words. His text 
was, "Let not thine heart envy sinners,^^ and in his 
description of the really pitiable condition of the 
ungodly, he touched the chords of deepest feeling in the 
vast assembly. We have seldom seen so large a mass of 
human beings so swayed by human speech. Men rose 
and stood and then pushed nearer the place where the 
young preacher was standing. A sea of upturned faces, 



APPENDIX. 273 

with eyes streaming with tears, and the audible sobs of 
women, sometimes rising in a wail that threatened to 
drown the speaker's voice, were evidences of his princely 
power. After this one exhibition, I was never at a loss 
how to account for it, that in his own Association, the 
Tyger River, the committee of preaching for the ensuing 
year would always assign him one of the important 
services, the Introductory or the Charity Sermon, and 
sometimes both of them. It might be said of him, as of 
the greatest of preachers, '' the common people heard him 
gladly.^' A friend, now himself an old man, said to me 
lately, " I remember the first time I ever heard him. I 
was standing under a tree near Mount Zion church, and 
the text is indelibly impressed on my memory : ' The 
Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace 
and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them 
that walk uprightly.' '' Another, who has a high relish 
for the right kind of preaching, told me that some twelve 
years ago he was returning, a young man of eighteen, to 
his home in Greenville, after an absence of days in Spar- 
tanburg, when he passed a church where a meeting was 
in progress. He was anxious to complete his journey, 
but concluded that he would hear a few words from Mr. 
Landrum, whom he had never heard. But all thought 
of leaving was soon abandoned, and if the preacher 
had gone on until night, he would have remained to hear 
him out, though it would have been necessary to ride 
miles in the night. At an associational meeting, held at 
Berea, he preached the missionary sermon. Sickness 
prevented my hearing him. Governor Perry, who was 

18 



274 APPENDIX. 

then editing the Patriot, referred in his paper to the 
glowing eloquence of this discourse, and my dear and 
honored brother, Prof. Edwards, whose fine judgment 
and cautious conscientiousness always kept him from 
extravagant expression in reporting the doings of the 
day, said to me, ^^Bro. Landrum preached a grand 
discourse : it was simply magnificent/^ Hundreds of 
such testimonies could easily be procured, but these, as 
samples, must suffice. The fact that the announcement 
of his preaching would draw a large congregation any- 
where ; the fact that he preached to large congregations 
at the same places through a long course of years ; the 
fact that during his ministry he baptized five thousand 
converts, and the further fact that his churches would 
not have surrendered him as leader for any other man, 
bear witness that your deceased pastor was ^^a Prince 
and a great man.'^ It would have been impossible for 
him to have gained and to have maintained such a hold 
upon the minds of others in the absence of superior 
intellectual powers. These he manifestly possessed. 
I was struck with this in conversation with him. More 
than once occupying the same bed with him, we almost 
consumed the night in delightful intercourse, in which I 
could not but admire the fecundity of his mind and the 
breadth of his views. In this way, more than by 
hearing him preach, I learned to respect his mental 
grasp and the versatility of his powers. There was an 
opulence of thought and an affluence of expression 
which in the presence of some things that denoted 
partial scholastic advantages, yet gave evidence that the 



APPENDIX. 275 



thinker and speaker belonged to that gifted class who 
are not wholly dependent on the schools. The matter of 
his conversation^ if not like ingots of gold already 
subjected to the assayer's crucible, was yet like the 
native ore richly charged with the precious metal. But 
large original endowments are not the only conditions of 
a preacher's permanent hold on the interests of his 
hearers. ^^ Heads that '^ will not learn " cannot teach.'^ 
Our honored brother perfectly understood this, and acted 
accordingly. His son writes me word : ^^ He was a hard 
student ; he read a great deal and was a great searcher for 
truth. He was well posted in the history of the country 
and in general history. His library is full of splendid 
religious, historical and biographical books. He studied 
his sermons well ; and he told me once that the people 
made a mistake in supposing it was an easy matter for 
him to preach. He said it always required an effort on 
his part, both in preparation and delivery ; and that no 
one could preach without a prayerful preparation.'^ 
Yet intellect and studiousness are not the only elements 
of a minister's acceptableness. Quite as important is 
the loving heart. Paul's compacted logic and rugged 
rhetoric gained force from his ^^ heart's desire " and his 
tears night and day. ^^ Speaking the truth in love " was 
the rule of his own practice, and the rule which he 
enjoined. By this rule our dear Brother Landrum's 
ministry was governed. How his great heart yearned 
for the good of others ! Compassion for the guilty and 
the perishing, and tender regard for the image of Christ, 
even when seen amid the evidence of weakness and error, 



276 APPENDIX, 



gave its hue to his ministrations^ and this serious and 
earnest tone of his spirit enabled him to steer clear of 
levity and acrimony. He could not be a joker and he 
could not play the pulpit pugilist. This kept him from 
controversialism and really enabled him to accomplish 
more for those views of Christian ordinance which he 
derived from the Xew Testament^ than those men do 
who deem themselves special conservators of Divine 
truth — men who are ever goffed and trimmed for the 
arena of debate. His aflPectionate spirit was shown not 
only in the bosom of a family carefully provided for 
and indulged to the extent of his ability^ but in his 
special interest in the youngs in his kindness to the poor, 
in his large hospitality as a Christian bishop and his 
genuine politeness. You wdll indulge with the mention 
in this connection of two little incidents which illustrate 
his character in this last direction : 

Toward the close of the war a heav}^ freshet had 
greatly injured the railroads, so that your speaker, 
instead of being able to return from Fairfield to Green- 
ville by rail, was compelled to resort to private convey- 
ance, and to make a detour by Shelton's Ferry, and on 
to Spartanburg. Two days' effort enabled him to reach 
that point by traveling in part on the portion of the 
W. & S. Road, which the storm had spared. From 
Spartanburg the next day in a one-horse wagon, the only 
vehicle that could be obtained, he set out for the home 
of our dear brother. On his way he met brother L. 
going to Spartanburg on business, but as soon as the 
latter learned the state of the case, he insisted, against 



APPENDIX, 277 



earnest remonstrance^ In returning home in company with 
him^ and entering tenderly into sympathy with the 
anxiety of an absent family with whom all mail commu- 
nications were cut off^, he provided horse and buggy and 
servant for the two days^ trip^ which was necessitated 
by the destruction of bridges. The other incident related 
to another person. It happened he w^as once thrown 
into the company of the late Dr. Johnson (W. B.) at the 
house of a common friend. After they had retired to 
rest^ and the younger man had fallen asleep^ he was 
awakened by the doctor^s voice : " Brother Landrum^ 
Brother Landrum/^ said the doctor^ " can^t — can't you^ 
my dear brother^ abstain from snoring ? Unless you do^ 
I cannot sleep.'' " Yes, sir/' said our good brother.. 
^^And what did you do then?" I asked as he told the 
incident. "^ Oh/' he said, " I sat up in my bed the 
rest of the night. I did not take a wink of sleep. I 
could not disturb so good a man as Dr. Johnson.'^ 
Straws show which way the wind blows, and these inci- 
dents, little in themselves, are not insignificant as showing 
the real spirit of the man. They fulfill Dr. Wither- 
spoon's definition of true politeness — "benevolence in 
little things." The mighty river has its head-springs, 
and these little bubblings of genuine kindness gleaming 
in the Cjuiet work of domestic life, found a fit continuance 
in that stream of noble, public spirit, and earnest loving 
spiritual labor, which for half a century have gladdened 
and blessed this section of our State, as really as the 
fertilizing flow of the Pacolet or the Saluda. Lastly, I 
should fail of the great lesson of our brother's life, and 



278 APPENDIX. 

should do injustice to this occasion^ if I did not mention 
his eminent prayerfulness. '' We will give ourselves to 
prayer^ and to the ministry of the word ^^ was the reso- 
lution of inspired Apostles. It has been the history of 
all men, who as preachers have been pious and great 
men. Why this is so, is in one point of view obvious 
enough. Grant that success here pre-eminently is depend- 
ent on the divine blessing, and that the divine blessing 
is suspended on prayer — then the occupant of the pulpit 
who, failing to give God the glory, confides in his love 
and his oratory, may be surrounded by human admirers, 
but will yet in reference to the great proper ends of the 
Christian preacher, be like a windmill without the wind ; 
like a steamer without an engine. '' AVho then is Paul, 
and who is ApoUos, but ministers by whom ye believed, 
even as the Lord gave to every man ? I have planted, 
and ApoUos watered; but God gave the increase. 
So then, neither is he that planteth anything ; neither 
he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase.^^ In 
harmony with the great primary law of efficient preach- 
ing, we may take what may be called a secondary view. 
When the preacher realizes that he is God's messenger 
to the people, when he enters into the thought, " We are 
laborers together with God : ye are God's husbandry ; 
ye are God's building," when penetrated with a sense of 
his own insufficiency, he has been pleading for the sense 
of God's presence, and the help of his spirit ; like Moses 
of old, he has been crying, ^^If thy presence go not 
with me, suffer me not to go up hence," there is a power 
<^reater than the mere natural magnetism of the secular 



APPENDIX. 279 



orator^ which touches the secret springs of the soul^ and 
makes the hearer feel that he is in contact with a man of 
God. Oh ! to how many was it the privilege of our 
dear departed brother thus to speak ! Like Moses from 
the sacred mount^ wdth his face shining^ so that the 
people felt that the glory of his countenance needed to 
be veiled, he has come to you with the awful solemnity 
and impressive tenderness of a legate from the skies, 
betokening his nearness and your own to the author of 
the glorious gospel of the blessed God. I do not 
wonder at the strong language of the Episcopalian 
missionary, at whose meeting at Landrum's Station our 
dear brother prayed in public, the last public service, by 
the way, he was ever to perform. For myself, I can 
say that not the least charming feature in John G. Lan- 
drum was his spirit of deep devotion. His prayers 
were in no sort what have been called preaching prayers, 
and yet had he done nothing but pray in public, he 
would have done more good than many preachers. But 
he has gone where prayer is no more needed. He now 
sees him, whom not seen he loved. He w^as faithful 
unto death, and has received the crown of life ; and that 
crown he rejoices to lay at the Saviour^s feet. 

" Servant of God, well-done ; 
Eest from thy blest employ ; 
The battle fought, the victory won, 
Enter thy Master's joy. 

" Soldier of Christ, well-done ; 
Praise be thy new employ ; 
And while eternal ages run, 
Kest in thy Saviour^s joy." 



280 APPENDIX. 



Brethren, remember the' words he spoke to you, being 
yet present with you. Brother ministers, copy his edify- 
ing, his noble example. Impenitent hearers, remember 
that you have heard his last appeal to you — his last 
prayer for you. For you that harvest is past, that summer 
is ended, and you are not saved. Oh ! hear its echo 
from the grave ; the voice which has so often addressed 
you ; and here in sight of his tomb, form resolutions 
which you failed to form in his living presence. Say in 
your hearts, Mr. Landrum^s God shall be my God ; Mr. 
Landrum's Saviour, my Saviour. Amen. 



ADDRESS OF EEV. R. H. REID, 

Pastor of Nazareth {Presbyterian) Church, January 
21st, 1882. 

Cheistian Fkiends: — The news of the death of 
your pastor, the Rev. John G. Landrum, reached me 
late last night, and sent a chill through my heart. The 
event was unexpected, as I had heard nothing of his 
declining health. Our work has intermingled in Mount 
Zion and Bethlehem congregations for thirty years. 
Our respective paths of life have occasionally crossed, 
not as often, however, as I desired. Our hearts have 
long been anchored on the same rock, the mercy of God 
in Christ, and our duties and trials have been similar. 



APPENDIX, 281 



I have long sinqe learned not only to respect and 
admire^ but to love him as a co-laborer in the vine- 
yard of our common Lord^ whose heart was as true 
to Christ and His cause as the magnetic needle to the 
North Pole. 

John G. Landrum was no ordinary man. As a 
citizen^ he was public-spirited and liberal ; always throw- 
ing his influence on the right side in education and all 
railroad enterprises, and in everything looking to the 
welfare of the people of the county. When the corner- 
stone of Reidville was laid, a quarter of a century ago, 
he was present to make the opening prayer, and to 
invoke the divine blessing upon the new enterprise. I 
have seen him years ago, standing up in the Association, 
under heavy pressure, pleading in behalf of an educated 
ministry, for Furman University and the Theological 
Seminary then in Greenville, and admired his firmness 
and clear conceptions of the true interests of his church. 
He took a deep interest in all railroad enterprises of the 
county, and, as a compliment for efficient services ren- 
dered to one of these roads, a depot and thriving village 
bear his name. 

I have had many glimpses of his character as a hus- 
band and father. He once pleasantly remarked to me, 
when conversing upon the subject of family religion : 
" I have shown my estimate of the views and practice 
of your church on this subject by selecting the mother 
of my children from your flock.^^ He was kind and 
affectionate in his family. He told me, perhaps, ten 
years ago, that he had never received more than six 



282 APPENDIX. 



hundred dollars any one year from the churches to which 
he ministered ; that, like Paul at Corinth, he had to 
make tents all his days for the support and education 
of his children. While laboring earnestly, zealously 
and successfully for the cause of Christ, he was not un- 
mindful of his duties to his family, and labored and 
prayed for their welfare, both temporally and spiritually. 
The last words I ever heard from him were spoken in 
our County Sunday-School Convention, at Gaffney's, 
when he told us of his mother's Sunday-school in a log 
cabin in the vicinity of iSTashville, Tenn., and of the 
particular lesson which impressed his boyish heart, the 
parable of the prodigal son. After giving a brief 
history of the Sabbath-school w^ork in the county 
for the last fifty years, he closed with the following 
words, ^^I am an old man, standing on the verge of 
the grave. The last words I wish to leave w^ith the 
fathers and mothers of Spartanburg are to train up 
their children in the fear and knowledge of God.'' 
His loss to his family is irreparable, and his prayers 
and example are a rich legacy to his children and 
grand-children. 

His sermons were not controversial, but Scriptural 
and experimental. The chief feature that characterizes 
them was Christ and His cross. They seemed to have 
been steeped in that fountain which has been open in 
the house of David for all sin and unclean ness — always 
interesting and instructive, at times, eloquent and pow- 
erful. I will say for the Presbyterians of the county 
that they always liked to hear him preach, and had con- 



APPENDIX, 283 



iidence in his sincerity and piety. He was a Baptist by 
conviction, and I honored him for following his convic- 
tions. There was no difference between us in our views 
of the plan of salvation, the doctrines of grace and 
experimental religion. When he spoke on points of 
difference between his own and other evangelical 
churches, it was in a kind way, to which none could 
take exception. While zealous to win sinners to Christ 
and to advance the interests of his own church, he was 
not sectarian, endeavoring to pull others down, but 
always ready to help them when opportunity was 
offered. I remember, some ten years ago, I was con- 
ducting a protracted meeting at Nazareth, and having 
become discouraged, was hesitating about its continuance. 
When I reached the church on the fifth or sixth day, I 
found him there. He had been in the lower part of 
the county and was returning home. Hearing of the 
meeting, he had concluded to stop. After preaching 
for me at my request, he said : " Engagements ahead 
Tender it impossible for me to stay longer, but do not 
stop the meeting. There must be some interest where 
so many attend church during the week. Keep peg- 
ging away at them.'^ I followed his advice, and the 
meeting resulted in a revival of religion in several 
families, and a goodly number of additions to the 
church. His usefulness was not confined to the Baptist 
Church. 

As a pastor mingling with his flock, he seemed to 
enter by intuition into the situation and trials of each. 
None knew better how to utter the rig^ht word in the 



284 APPENDIX. 

right place; whether it was a word of sympathy or 
comfort^ of rebuke or warning, or of advice in temporal 
or spiritual matters. I have heard it said that it was a 
rare thing for law-suits to originate in his congregations. 
What a grand thing to see such a man moving about 
among the families of a thousand members, dropping 
everywhere the right word in the right place ! The 
wisest of men compares words fitly spoken to ^^Apples 
of gold in pictures of silver.^^ Who can estimate the 
crop of good from the plantings, even of one laborer 
like him ? Another has beautifully and truthfully said : 
" No lovely thing on earth can picture words of wisdom 
in all their beauty. They are the white- winged seeds 
of happiness, wafted from the islands of the blessed — - 
green promise of the wheat that yieldeth angels' food — 
drops of crystal dew, which the wings of Seraphs 
scatter.^' 

I once knew a guest of Job Johnstone, of NcAvberry, 
one of the ablest and most learned chancellors that 
adorned the bench of our State in ante-helium times. 
The conversation turned one morning upon my old 
pastor, the Rev. David Humphries, of Anderson. The 
chancellor said he had long known him, and while he 
was not eminent in any one department of life, yet^ 
taking into consideration his early advantages, looking 
at him from every stand-point, as a husband, father, 
citizen, preacher, presbyter, pastor ; and considering his 
great influence throughout the Presbytery, he had de- 
liberately come to the conclusion that David Humphries 
was one of the greatest men he ever knew. I have 



APPENDIX, 285 



often thought of the chancellor's judgment in connection 
with your deceased pastor. The two men resembled 
each other in many respects. He died in the church 
where he was ordained after a ministry of over half a 
century^ the congregation desiring the services of no 
other while he lived. Like your pastor^ whose cheerful 
and benevolent face you will see no more in this world, 
he was prompt to every call of duty. In the beautiful 
language of Goldsmith : 

" He watched and wept and prayed and felt for all, 
Allured to brighter worlds and led the way ; 
Your welfare pleased him and your cares distressed : 
To you, his heart, his love, his griefs were given. 
But all his serious thoughts had rest in Heaven." 

Finally, in uttering these words, suffer me to say that 
I am not moved by any desire to flatter his family or 
his friends, but by honest conviction, after personal 
knowledge of him and his work, to some extent, for 
thirty years. A prince in Israel — a pillar of the church 
has fallen. His death is a great loss, not only to his 
family and the Baptist Church, but to the common cause 
of evangelical religion in the county. When I consider 
his long and useful life, his self-sacrificing labors, their 
eifects under God upon the present prosperity of your 
church in this county, I feel that it is due both to him 
and to yourselves that you should perpetuate his memory, 
either by erecting a suitable monument over his grave, 
or better, perhaps, by endowing a professorship in some 
of your literary institutions to bear his name. 



286 APPENDIX. 



" Why should our tears in sorrow flow 

When God recalls his own, 
And bids them leave a world of woe 

For an immortal crown ? 
Is not e'en death a gain to those 

Whose life to God was given ? 
Gladly to earth their eyes they close 

To open them in Heaven. 
Their toils are past, their work is done, 

And they are fully blessed ; 
They fought the fight, the victory won. 

And entered into rest." 



HTSTOEY 

OP 



Bethlehem Chijroh, 

SPARTAN"BURG COUjSTTY, S. C. 



The Church of Christ, with its pulpit, its prayer- 
meetings, its Sabbath-schools, its binding Christian fellow- 
ship, its wholesome discipline, and its zealous fervor for 
the glory of its divine Master, is God^s organized form 
of resistance to the evil of this world, and the only 
certain means of reformation and regeneration. It is the 
citadel of God^s moral power on earth. It is the pur- 
chase of his own blood. Its foundation stone is laid for 
eternity. Its faith and its hope abideth, its light, the 
light of the world, and its salt, the salvation of man. 
It is the City of the living God, placed " on a hill that can- 
not be hid,^^ and its faithful laborers are never in vain. 
In order, then, to strengthen the confidence, and inspire 
the zeal of God^s people, in future laborers, I promise 
to give a sketch of the history of what has been done 
through the instrumentality of one church, in the last 
seventy-two years. 

The Baptist Church of Christ at Bethlehem, located 

287 



288 APPENDIX. 



five miles south of the town of Spartanburg, was consti- 
tuted in the year of our Lord 1800, by a Presbytery of 
Baptist ministers, consisting of Austin Cleyton, George 
Bre^vton, Joseph Camp, Royal and Barnett. The names 
enrolled in the constitution, were Robert Foster, Thomas 
Tinsley, Isaac Tinsley, Thomas Foster, James Crook, 
Sr., John Gideons, James Ridings, and others. Nearly 
all of the above-named were emigrants from Amelia 
county, Va., bringing with them, at the close of the 
Revolutionary War, much of the type and character of 
the true Virginian — all honest and industrious men, of 
plain, practical common sense. 

Under the pastoral care of Rev. A. Cleyton, who was 
its first pastor, the Bethlehem church was greatly pros- 
pered — " the word of the Lord grew and multiplied.^^ 
In a few years this little colony of Virginia Baptists 
had increased so in numbers and influence, that its con- 
gregations were immensely large. The people gathered 
from distant neighborhoods to this spiritual " house of 
bread,'^ where they were fed with the food which en- 
dureth unto eternal life. Then there were but few 
Baptist churches located in the District of Spartanburg. 
These indications, given by Him who alone " giveth the 
increase,'^ prompted the church to put forth branches in 
other localities. The present large and flourishing 
churches at Mount Zion and Holly Springs, were the 
first offsprings of the pious zeal and energy of the 
mother church at Bethlehem. Shortly after these, 
another branch was located on Gibb's mountain (a small 
eminence four miles west of Glenn Springs), through 



APPENDIX, 289 



the labors of Christopher Johnson, from which the 
Baptist Church at Philadelphia was constituted of mem- 
bers drawn from Bethlehem, Cedar Springs and Friend- 
ship churches. The latter church, now one hundred and 
four years old, was probably the first Christian church 
planted in the District of Spartanburg. 

The Mount Zion church was fourteen years an arm, 
as it was then called, of the Bethlehem, before she had 
attained sufficient strength to be constituted a separate 
church. It had its house of worship and regular 
preaching, and by permission received members, but 
reported all its proceedings to the mother church. The 
Holly Spring branch remained for several years an arm,, 
but was finally organized into a regular Baptist church.. 
She may be said to be the eldest daughter of Bethlehem.. 
She has been for many years a growing church, iu 
numbers, intelligence and pious influence. Under the 
ministerial labors of Rev. T. J. Earle, she has been 
made to blossom as the rose. 

The Mount Zion, from the period of her organization 
to the present, has been a flourishing church, embodying 
in her membership, from time to time, many excellent 
and influential men ; she too, in her maturity, has put 
forth her branches. The Spartanburg Baptist church 
is a branch of the Mount Zion. The Oak Grove sprang 
from the Bethlehem. The Mount Calvary from the 
Holly Spring church. Thus it will be seen that the 
old Bethlehem (the house of bread) now hoary in the 
pious labors of more than three score and ten years, has 
fed her thousands with the bread of life — she has been 

19 



290 APPENDIX. 



truly a fruitful viue of the Lord's planting. She and 
her branches have preserved a faithful record of their 
proceedings. Their lists of members from first to last, 
when aggregated, will amount to near four thousand 
names. Of the prominent men and workers in the 
Bethlehem church and^her branches, we can only briefly 
notice those who have died and gone to their reward, 
and those who have, from time to time, emigrated to 
other States, bearing with them the standard of the 
mother church, to be planted in new and hitherto un- 
oultivated fields of Christian labor. The amount of 
good accomplished by these pioneers in other lands, 
eternity alone will disclose. The year 1845 was marked 
by unprecedented droughts and failure of crops, to such 
a degree that the whole country was filled with distress- 
ing forebodings of suffering for bread. Many of the 
members of Bethlehem church were driven to seek 
homes in the West. Forty or more members received 
letters of dismission at the same time and for the same 
reason. They were captives fleeing from famine. On 
the day of their dismissal from their mother church, 
they sat and wept on their seats long after the congrega- 
tion had dispersed. They, and many others, found 
homes in the West, where they aided in building up 
other churches. We have already stated that Austin 
Cleyton was the first pastor. After a few years, he, too, 
removed to the West, where he closed the labors of a 
useful life. 

He was succeeded by Rev. Thomas Bomar,an emigrant 
from Halifax county, Va. He was a man of good 



APPENDIX. 291 



education, eminent piety, excellent preaching talents, 
and in all respects, an influential man ; filling the office 
of tax collector for several years, and when he died 
was the Ordinary of Spartanburg District. He was 
greatly beloved by his flock at Bethlehem, and continued 
to supply her some fifteen or twenty years, and was her 
pastor at the time of his death, in the year 1830. His 
loss was felt by all who knew him, and mourned by 
those who loved him. 

Christopher Johnson was an emigrant from Virginia, 
an educated man and a good preacher. He was the 
father of the late Governor David Johnson, of South 
Carolina, and his elegant penmanship and plain and 
simple diction show that he was a man of intelligence 
far above the most of men of his day and time, and 
worthy to be the father of the distinguished son, in 
whom all South Carolina reposed confidence, and on 
whom she bestowed her highest honors. The Constitu- 
tion and much of the business transactions of the Bethle- 
hem church for several years are said to be recorded by 
him. He, after some years, removed his membership to 
the Philadelphia church where he finished his labors on 
earth. His remains lie beneath a dilapidated brick 
enclosure some half mile west of where Philadelphia 
church now stands. 

Rev. James Rainwater was for many years a member 
of the Bethlehem church. He was a man much beloved 
and esteemed for his ministerial usefulness ; with nothing 
more than a common-school education, he ranked with 
the best and most useful ministers of his day. His 



292 APPENDIX, 

zealous exertions in the temperance reform from the year 
1830 to the period of his removal to the State of Georgia 
in the year 1838 will be remembered by all who knew 
him. He was a zealous, fearless man^ open and out- 
spoken against the wrong, and a warm defender of the 
right. He removed his membership to the Philadelphia 
church, where he continued until his removal as above 
stated. Very recently he closed the labors of his active 
and useful life, having been a minister of the gospel 
fifty years. 

James Crook was a man of strong mind, much energy 
and purity of life and character. He was for some 
years a member of the Legislature of South Carolina, 
and wielded much influence for good, both in his church 
and community. He removed many years since to the 
State of Alabama, where he soon became a prominent 
citizen ; he and his sons became wealthy and influential. 
He died a number of years since. 

Dr. Eber Smith, an eminent physician, a man of 
vigorous intellect, much influence and for several years a 
member of the Legislature of South Carolina and a 
member of the Bethlehem church. The District of 
Spartanburg has seldom been represented by a stronger 
mind or a purer patriot. He also represented his church 
in religious associations. He became a member of the 
church late in life, but was steadfast to the end. 

Ransom Foster, Esq., was long the clerk of the 
church, and a man of excellent business capacity, and 
certainly no church could boast of a better man, truly 
pious and of unblemished character. He was universally 



APPENDIX, 293 



beloved for his amiableness and sweetness of temper. 
Many years since he removed with his family to the 
State of Georgia, where he died of good old age, and 
was gathered to his fathers ; a crown of life was his 
reward ; sons and daughters survived him, one of whom 
still lives, Dr. Ira L. Foster, to shed luster upon the 
memory of an honored father. 

William Foster (Mill Creek, as he was called), a 
venerable deacon of the church, was an excellent man, 
of sound sense, honest, truthful, industrious, and, in a 
word, possessing all the attributes of a good, old Vir- 
ginia citizen. He was strictly a godly man, honoring 
his profession and the sacred office which he filled for 
many years. He lived to old age, when he, too, was 
gathered to his fathers. His remains sleep in the 
cemetery at Bethlehem. A large posterity, mostly pious, 
live to illustrate his example and purity of spirit. 

Joseph Hurt, was also a deacon of the Bethlehem 
church for many years. He was a man of ready mind, 
a lover of all that is good, and an enemy to evil doing ; 
indeed, he was a terror to evil doers, and the praise of 
those that do well. He exercised a strong influence 
for good in his community and performed the duties of 
a church member faithfully and promptly. He, too, 
died of old age, and his remains repose in the grave- 
yard of the church he honored so well with a holy life 
and godly conversation. His posterity, widow and sur- 
viving children, after his death, sought a home in the 
West, where many of them still live, respectable repre- 
sentatives of a much-beloved father. Joel Hurt, elder 



294 APPENDIX. 



brother of the above, or old Captain Hurt, as he was 
called, was a man universally respected. He was a de- 
cided character, unaffected by the notions or opinions of 
men around him. He stood firm in the same high-toned 
old Virginia style of man. In his dress, his manner of 
life, his religion, his patriotism, his punctual discharge 
of duty to his God and country, he knew no change or 
shadow of turning. His word was taken by all who 
knew him for his bond. The same straight-breasted, 
long-waisted coat, with waist coat long and ample in 
propoi-tion, and pants according to the same style com- 
mon in revolutionary times, encircling his waist, all 
singularly neat, and generally of the same piece of cloth, 
constituted the outfit in which he appeared at home and 
abroad during his long and interesting life. He was 
polite and respectful in his intercourse with men, hospit- 
able at his home, and kind and obliging to his neighbors. 
He was of ready mind and intelligent above most men 
of his day. He venerated his church and highly 
esteemed his privileges in the house of God ; above all, 
he feasted his soul on the faithful ministration of the 
Gospel of Christ, responding to the words of his minister 
audibly when something that pleased him well fell from 
his lips. All church demands for the poor, for missions, 
or the pastor of his church, were promptly and liberally 
responded to, generally in specie, for he was one of those 
who thought nothing was really money but gold and 
silver. In his Christian character, he was himself gold 
tried in the fire. Capt. Hurt was a soldier in the Revo- 
lutionary War, came from Virginia with Col. Morgan 



APPENDIX. 295 



to recruit Gates' defeated army, then under the command 
of Gen. Green, fought in the battle of Cowpens, and at 
Guilford Courthouse, and to the close of the war, per- 
sistently refused a pension from his government, declar- 
ing that he got what he fought for and that was pay 
enough for him. This godly man slept with his fathers 
when he had attained the age of more than four score 
years. Time would fail us were we to take extended 
notice of many other prominent men, who were members 
and active workers in this church in different periods of 
history, of James Yates, Rev. Abram Crow, Eev. Gabriel 
Philips, John Foster, William Foster, Josiah Hatchet, 
Dr. Robert McDaniel, Thomas Hurt, James Foster, Jr., 
and others, who have passed away, lea\dng behind them 
a name worthy of remembrance. 

The venerable deacon, James Foster, at the great age 
of more than ninety years, still lives to go in and out 
before the flock. Whoever looks upon the hoary head of 
this holy man of God, may see in him an excellent 
specimen of the men of whom we have been speaking.' 
It should be said, in all justice and propriety, that the 
mothers of Bethlehem were worthy of the fathers ; 
indeed, a more pious body of female members have 
seldom adorned a Christian church. Whoever wTites 
the history of Mt. Zion church, will find a long list of 
names of worthy men and noble workers in the vineyard 
of Christ, who have also gone to their reward. Many 
of these delighted in the memory of the mother church, 
and felt themselves honored in being her descendants ; 
of these we would only mention John Chapman, Sr., 



296 APPENDIX, 

John Wood, Dr. John W. Lewis and Edward Bomar. 
We have been the more careful to record this history ^ 
because the fathers of the church have nearly all passed 
away. The aged deacon, James Foster, of whom we 
have spoken, and Richard Moss, are the only male mem- 
bers who still live to tell the events of the church, fifty 
years ago. 

Seventy-two years have come and gone, since the good 
men of whom we have been speaking, united, under 
divine direction, to plant the church at Bethlehem. Its 
faithful record show that its pathway has led them 
through seasons of prosperity, and seasons of adversity and 
affliction. His discipline has been strict ; yet tempered 
with Christian forbearance. Her forms of worship have 
been simple and plain, without ostentation or show. 
Her fellowship and unity of spirit has been without 
parallel, in sweetness and undisturbed communion. No 
serious strife or contentions have weakened her strength, 
or distracted her counsels. Her members have dwelt 
together in love and unity. They have been careful 
" not to fall out by the way.^^ Men of this world in 
times of their greatest trials, have had reason to exclaim, 
" See how these brethren love one auother.^^ But few 
of the members of Bethlehem church have entered the 
race for wealth or worldly preferment. They have 
sought to be good livers, showing unbounded hospitality 
to friends and brethren, and even to strangers. They do 
not neglect the poor of the church, and their pastor 
always finds a sumptuous home in all their houses, and 
in all their hearts. The injunction of God's word '^ that 



APPENDIX. 297 



he that preaches the Gospel, shall live of the Gospel/^ 
have been recognized and practiced by this church from 
her constitution. The contributions of her members 
have been voluntary, and generally according to their 
ability, or '' as the Lord hath prospered them/^ But no 
churches have ever loved or honored their pastor more, 
and few pastors have had greater reasons for loving their 
flock than the pastor of Bethlehem church. 

Proof of this is seen in the fact, that the term of 
Rev. Thomas Bomar and that of the late pastor, J. G. 
Landrum, when put together, amounts to more than 
fifty years. She has had her winters and summers, her 
seasons of coldness and declining, and her times of 
refreshing. In the great revival of 1802-3, she was 
greatly renew^ed in spiritual strength and numbers also ; 
in the revival of 1832-3, she added largely to her mem- 
bership. She returned one hundred additions by bap- 
tism to the Association in the year 1832. 

It may be truly said that old Bethlehem church is 
rich in history. Beside Bomar and Landrum, she has 
had but three others to supply the place of pastor: 
Cleyton, about five years, M. C. Barnett, ten years, and 
Richard Woodruff, two years. She may well talk of 
her departed worthies, of '' sweet communions and solemn 
vows oft repeated,^^ of the crowding of her gates with 
converts to the Lord and of the frequent visitations of 
the king of Zion. 

She should take encouragement from her past history 
to renewed zeal and energy in the future. Her field 
is yet white unto the harvest. New laborers are 



298 APPENDIX, 



preparing to enter the field. Her Sunday-school^ 
over thirty years old, still flourishes. The stream 
of her influence widens and deepens, a bright future 
awaits her. Then, brethren, let us "thank God and 
take courage.^^ 



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